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THE 



SOUL OF THINGS; 



306^ 



OE, 



PSYCHOMETRIC 



RESEARCHES AND DISCOVERIES. 



WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH M. F. DENTON. 






" Enter into the soul of things." 

Wordsworth. 



THIRD EDITION, REVISED. 









BOSTON: 
WALKER, WISE AND COMPANY, 

245 WASHINGTON STREET. 

1866. 



^\ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18G3, by 

WILLIAM DENTON, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. 



OBO. C. RAND & AVERT, 
STEBEOTYPERS AND PRINTERS. 



PREFACE. 



There is a wide realm lying between the known physical and 
the comparatively unknown spiritual, — a realm as yet almost en- 
tirely unexplored. Mesmeric experimenters have been pioneers in 
exploring one portion of it, Reichenbach and Buchanan in other 
portions, while in this volume, we record our experience in travel- 
ling over a, part of this little known, but exceedingly interesting 
and important region. 

Facts are constantly presenting themselves, that no philosophy 
explains ; and as the most obvious phenomena are the first to be 
brought within the domain of science, because their explanation lies 
nearer the surface, so what remain necessarily lie deeper, are the 
results of the operation of subtler forces, and their existence is more 
likely in consequence to be denied by those whose belief is bounded 
by what their senses supply, or what can be inferred therefrom. But 
he who knows most of Nature, he who is most reverently her lover, 
will be least likely to set up his knowledge as a boundary beyond 
which fact and philosophy may never advance. The higher we rise, 
the wider the circle of the unknown stretches around us; while 
Destiny with uplifted finger beckons us on. 



IV PREFACE. 

It has been suggested by some persons who have read portions of 
the manuscript of this volume, that many of the statements made 
are too strange to be believed, and that, by their publication, we 
subject ourselves to very severe criticism. So far as the conclu- 
sions drawn from the facts presented are concerned, I am willing 
they should receive all that criticism can bestow ; for the facts, I am 
not responsible, nor am I concerned about their reception ; and if 
any one chooses to do battle with them, he is welcome to the fruits of 
his victory. When a fact comes, I am prepared to welcome it ; and 
I envy not those who discard a truth because Fashion has not set 
her seal upon it. 

This work is, I feel, the merest introduction to one of the 
widest and most important fields in which the soul of man ever 
labored ; and I trust that it will have the effect of inducing men of 
intellect and means to investigate and teach, though they should pull 
down all the theoretical scaffolding that we have erected. 

W. D. 

Boston, June, 1863. 



In presenting this third edition of the Soul of Tilings to the public, I have 
only to say that its statements are such as time and further experiments have 
but strengthened. The recent discoveries of fossils in the Laurentian rocks, 
of the animal origin of petroleum, which is now generally acknowledged, and 
the light thrown upon the condition of the early men of Europe since the first 
edition was published, strengthen much in it that was received with distrust, 
and render it highly probable that the further revelations of science will de- 
monstrate the truth of what, in this volume, may still be regarded by some as 
wild and improbable. 

W. D. 
Boston, Feb. 21, 1800. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

PSYCHOMETRIC RESEARCHES AND DISCOVERIES. 

CHAPTER I. 

PICTURES ON TEE RETINA AND BRAIN. 

PICTURES FORMED ON THE RETINA WHEN BEHOLDING OBJECTS — THESE 
PICTURES ENDURING — PICTURES SEEN WITH CLOSED EYES — VISIONS OP 
THE BLIND — VISIONS OF OBJECTS SEEN LONG BEFORE BY THE SICK AND 
HEALTHY — ALL OBJECTS ONCE SEEN ARE PERMANENTLY RETAINED IN 
THE BRAIN, 11—25 



CHAPTER II. 

PICTURES ON SURROUNDING OBJECTS. 

DAGUERREAN PICTURES — PICTURES TAKEN IN THE DARK — PICTURES TAKEN 
ON ALL BODIES CONTINUALLY, AND ENDURING AS THOSE BODIES — ALL 

PAST HISTORY THUS RECORDED, 26—31 

1* V 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

PSTCHOMETRY. 

DR. BUCHANAN'S EXPERIMENTS — EFFECTS OF MEDICINES UPON PERSONS 
WHEN HELD IN THE HAND — CHARACTER DESCRIBED FROM UNSEEN 
LETTERS, 32—36 



CHAPTER IV. 

EXPERIMENTS. 

EXPERIMENTS WITH GEOLOGICAL, METEORIC, MISCELLANEOUS, GEOGRAPH- 
ICAL, ARCHEOLOGICAL, AND METALLIC SPECIMENS, 37—264 



CHAPTER V. 



REMARKABLE PHENOMENA EXPLAINED. 
SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS — APPARITIONS — VISIONS, 255—260 



CHAPTER VI. 

UTILITY OF PSYCnOMETRY. 

UTILITY OF PSYCIIOMETRY TO THE GEOLOGIST, THE PALEONTOLOGIST, THE 
MINER, THE ASTRONOMER, THE PHYSIOLOGIST, AND THE ANATOMIST — ITS 
EMPLOYMENT IN THE CURE OF DISEASES — ITS BENEFIT TO THE ARTIST 
AND THE HISTORIAN — RADIANT FORCES PASSING FROM HUMAN BEINGS 



CONTENTS. VII 

AND INFLUENCING OTHERS — INFLUENCE OF PEOPLE ON THE COUNTRY IN 
WHICH THEY LIVE — INFLUENCE OF A COUNTRY ON THE PEOPLE — WOM AN 
MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO PSYCHOMETRIC INFLUENCE THAN MAN — PSYCHOM- 
ETRY AS A DISCOVERER OF CRIME, 267—287 



CHAPTER VII. 

MYSTERIES REVEALED. 

FORTUNE-TELLING — DREAMS — RELICS AND AMULETS — HALLUCINATIONS, 

289—305 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

PSYCHOMETRY REVEALS THE POWERS OF THE SOUL — AS THE BODY BE- 
COMES WEAKER IT BECOMES STRONGER — EVIDENCE OF OUR FUTURE 
EXISTENCE, 306—308 



PART II. 

QUESTIONS, CONSIDERATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS. 

HOW OBJECTS ARE SEEN PSYCHOMETRICALLY, 312—320 

SEEN BEST IN DARKNESS, AND WITH CLOSED EYES, 321—328 

WHY CALLED SIGHT, 328—332 

MESMERIC INFLUENCE NOT NEEDED TO INDUCE THE NECESSARY 

SENSITIVENESS, 333—335 



VIII CONTENTS. 

WHERE THE GAZE IS DIRECTED, 335—336 

WHY THE PSYCHOMETER IS UNABLE TO SEE SOME OBJECTS, . . . 336—339 

THE NATURE OF THE LIGHT BY WHICH OBJECTS ARE SEEN, . . . 339—347 

HOW THE PSYCHOMETER TRAVELS, OR APPEARS TO TRAVEL, . . 348—353 

HOW ACCOUNT FOR THE HEARLNG OF SOUNDS, 354—355 

GOING BACKWARD IN TIME, 356 

CONTINUED EFFECTS OF INFLUENCES, 356— 3 ! ~0 

DEPARTED SPIRITS, 361 

PREDOMINANT INFLUENCES, 362—364 

CONCLUSION, 364—366 



PART I. 



PSYCHOMETRIC RESEARCHES AND 
DISCOVERIES. 



BY WILLIAM DENTON. 



"On the hardest adamant some footprint of us is stamped in; the last 
rear of the host will read traces of the earliest van." — Carlyle. 



" The air is one vast library, on whose pages are forever written all that 
man has ever said, or woman whispered." — Prof. Babbage. 



■ In Nature's infinite book of mystery I have a little read."— Shakspeare. 



THE SOUL OE THINGS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PICTURES ON THE RETINA AND BRAIN. 

By looking into the eye of an individual beholding 
a landscape, we can see therein a picture of the fields, 
houses, trees, and objects generally that come within 
the range of his vision. This is because rays of light 
proceeding from these objects pass to the retina of 
the eye, and there form images or pictures of them. 
Nothing is apparent to ordinary vision until it is 
painted upon this window of the soul. 

The pictures so made and seen are not as evanescent 
as they are generally supposed to be. They seem to 
pass from the retina of the eye into the brain, and are 
there indelibly impressed upon its substance ; and 
under certain conditions they can be brought before 
the gaze years afterward, with as great distinctness 
as the beholder was conscious of at the time the ob- 
jects themselves were presented to" the sight. 

Thus Sir Isaac Newton, in a letter to Locke, says : 
" I looked a very little while upon the sun in the look- 
ing-glass with my right eye, and then turned my eyes 
into a dark corner of my chamber and winked, to ob- 



12 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

serve the impression made, and the circle of colors 
which encompassed it, and how they decayed by de- 
grees, and at last vanished. Intending my fancy upon 
them to see their last appearance, I found, to my 
amazement, that they began to return, and by little 
and little to become as lively and vivid as when I had 
newly looked upon the sun. But when I ceased to 
intend my fancy upon them they vanished again. After 
this, I found that as often as I went into the dark and 
intended my mind upon them, as when a man looks 
earnestly to see anything which is difficult to be seen, 
I could make the phantasm return without looking any 
more upon the sun ; and the oftener I made it return, 
the more easily I could make it return again. And at 
length by repeating this, without looking any more 
upon the sun, I made such an impression on my eye 
that, if I looked upon the clouds, or a book, or any 
bright object, I saw upon it a round, bright spot of 
light like the sun. . . . And now in a few hours' time 
I had brought my eyes to such a pass, that I could 
look upon no bright object with either eye but I saw 
the sun before me, so that I durst neither write nor 
read ; but to recover the use of my eyes I shut my- 
self up in my chamber, made dark, for three days 
together, and used all means to divert my imagination 
from the sun. For if I thought upon him I presently 
saw his picture, though I was in the dark. . . . For 
some months after, the spectrum of the sun began to 
return as often as I began to meditate upon the phe- 
nomena, even though 1 lay in bed at midnight with 
my curtains drawn."* 

* Brewster's Life of Newton, p. 237 



PICTURES ON THE RETINA AND BRAIN. 13 

There are probably but few persons that perceive 
such impressions as readily and vividly as Newton did 
this of the sun ; but I think there are facts sufficient 
to show that all persons retain these impressions in a 
latent form, though the conditions favorable for their 
manifestation may not be present. Were experiments 
instituted for the purpose of testing the duration of 
visual impressions, as in the following, the result would 
be surprising to most persons. " Dr. Darwin says, ' I 
covered a paper about four inches square with yellow, 
and, with a pen filled with a blue color, wrote upon 
the middle of it the word banks in capitals, and, sit- 
ting with my back to the sun, fixed my eyes for a min- 
ute on the centre of the letter N in the word. After 
shutting my eyes, and shading them somewhat with 
my hand, the word was distinctly seen in the spectrum, 
in yellow colors on a blue ground ; and then, on open- 
ing my eyes -on a yellowish wall, at twenty feet dis- 
tance, the magnified name of banks appeared on the 
wall written in golden characters.' 7 '* In this case the 
word was seen with closed eyes, though in a different 
color from that in which it was written. The reason 
that blue was seen in place of yellow, and yellow 
instead of blue, probably arose from the fact that 
when we look for a long while upon one color, the eye 
becomes unable for some time to perceive that color, 
and we see, in the place of it, its complementary color. 
Blue and yellow being complementary colors, the one 
was seen in place of the other. 

" Dr. Ferriar mentions of himself that when about 
the age of fourteen, if he had been viewing any inter- 

* Abfrcrombic's Intellectual Philosophy. 



14 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

esting object in the course of the day, as a romantic 
ruin, a fine seat, or a review of troops, so soon as even- 
ing came, if he had occasion to go into a dark room, 
the whole scene was brought before him with a bril- 
liancy equal to what it possessed in daylight, and re- 
mained visible for some minutes." In these cases, the 
impressions do not seem to have been retained long 
after the objects were presented to the eye ; and it 
might be supposed that the impression made upon the 
retina was so strong, that the pictures were retained 
there for a time and gradually faded away ; but in the 
cases. that I shall now bring forward, it will be seen 
that this explanation is altogether insufficient to ac- 
count for the facts presented. 

Persons who have become blind are very naturally 
more observing of such visions, as well as more liable 
to their presentation ; and we have, therefore, many 
well-authenticated instances of persons, who, having 
become blind, could at times see the objects on which 
their eyes had previously rested, with all the vivid- 
ness of reality. 

"Dr. Samuel Willard, of Deerfield, Mass., has for 
the last twenty-five years been completely blind, and 
for twelve .years previous had only been able to dis- 
tinguish largo objects indistinctly ; but even now, 
when closeted in his room, visions of the green fields 
and sunny slopes of the Connecticut valley appear to 
him as really as when he gazed upon them with his eyes 
which for so long a period have admitted no light. 
He denies that this is imagination, but regards it as 
an exhibition of one of the mysterious modes by which 
the mind may hold communication with the outer world 



PICTURES ON THE RETINA AND BRAIN. 15 

without the aid of the senses." * The imagination pos- 
sesses no such power as some persons attribute to it, 
and Dr. Willard very properly refused to recognize 
this phenomenon as its offspring. But if he can only 
see what his eyes had previously gazed upon, it is not, 
I think, as he supposes, an exhibition of a mode by 
which the mind may hold communication with the 
outer world without the aid of the senses, for the 
sense of vision had first to be employed to obtain 
these pictures ; but it is an exhibition of a power by 
which the scenes taken into the mind by the sense of 
vision become again visible, — scenes no one of which, 
apparently, is ever lost or obliterated. 

The case of Niebuhr, the celebrated Danish trav- 
eller, much resembles this. " When old, blind, and 
so infirm that he was able only to be carried from his 
bed to his chair, he used to describe to his friends the 
scenes which he had visited in his early days with 
wonderful minuteness and vivacity. When they ex- 
pressed their astonishment, he told them that as he lay 
in his bed, all visible objects shut out, the pictures of 
what he had seen in the East continually floated before 
his mind's eye, so that it was no wonder he could speak 
of them as if he had seen them yesterday. With like 
vividness the deep, intense sky of Asia, with its bril- 
liant and twinkling host of stars, which he had so often 
gazed at by night, or its lofty vault of blue by day, 
was reflected in the hours of stillness and darkness on 
his inmost soul." f 

That these images are really imprinted upon the 
brain, in many cases at least, and not merely upon the 

* American Encyclopedia, Vol. in. p. 357. + Intellectual Philosophy, p. 100. 



16 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

retina of the eye, there is the best of evidence. M til- 
ler, the German physiologist, informs us that a remark- 
able case was observed by Lincke, in which the extir- 
pation of the eye was followed by the appearance of 
luminous figures before the orbit as long as the inflam- 
mation consequent on the operation endured. 

" A Jewess who had been for a long time blind 
became insane. Her illusions were of the sight, and 
she was constantly haunted by strange visions. After 
her death it was ascertained that the two optic nerves, 
from the part at which they are united within the head 
(which anatomists call their commissure) to their ter- 
mination in the retina, were shrunk and wasted, so 
that they must have been wholly incapable of perform- 
ing their functions." * In these cases it must be evi- 
dent that the pictures seen were not impressed on the 
retina, and in the latter case Ave can hardly conceive 
the power to behold them to reside in the optic nerve : 
the pictures must have been impressed upon the brain, 
and the excitement of inflammation in the one case, 
and of insanity in the other, rendered them visible. 

Many persons, when attacked by fever, or diseases 
accompanied with fever, have had presented to them 
scenes that they had beheld years before, and which 
in some cases they had entirely forgotten. Mr. Mac- 
nisli gives the following interesting account of a vision 
thus seen by himself: "In March, 1829, during an 
attack of fever, accompanied with violent action in the 
brain, 1 experienced illusions of a very peculiar kind. 
They did not appear except when the eyes were shut 
or the room perfectly dark ; and this was one of the 

Brodie* Psychologic Inquiries, p. 86. 



PICTURES ON THE RETINA AND BRAIN. 17 

most distressing things connected with my illness ; for 
it obliged me either to keep my eyes open, or to admit 
more light into the chamber than they could well tol- 
erate. 

" One night, when the fever was at its height, I had 
a splendid vision of a theatre, in the arena of which 
Ducrow, the celebrated equestrian, was performing. 
On this occasion everything was gay, bright and beau- 
tiful. I was broad awake, my eyes were closed, and 
yet I saw with perfect distinctness the whole scene 
going on in the theatre — Ducrow performing his won- 
ders of horsemanship, and the assembled multitude, 
among whom I recognized several intimate friends — 
in short, the whole process of the entertainment, as 
clearly as if I were present at it. When I opened my 
eyes the whole scene vanished like the enchanted pal- 
ace of the necromancer ; when I closed them, it as 
instantly returned. . . . This theatrical vision contin- 
ued for about five hours." * It is evident, from his 
account, that Mr. Macnish had seen just such a per- 
formance as this: the inimitable painter, Light, had 
drawn it in the eye, complete in every feature, and 
thence it had been transferred to the brain. During 
the paroxysm of the fever, the curtain was drawn that 
ordinarily conceals such pictures from our gaze, and 
there it hung, as bright and beautiful as on the day of 
its execution. The wonder is, not that such pictures 
are seen, but that they are so seldom seen, or, being 
seen, are so little noticed. 

Hugh. Miller, when young, attended theatre in Edin- 
burgh. "The scenery," he says, "made no favorable 

* Combe's Phrenology, p. 352. 



18 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

impression upon me ; but fourteen years after, when 
the whole seemed to have passed out of my memory, 
I was lying ill of small-pox, which, though a good deal 
modified, apparently, by the vaccination of a long an- 
terior period, was accompanied by such a degree of 
fever that for two days together one delirious image 
continued to succeed another in the troubled senso- 
rium, as scene succeeds scene in the box of an itin- 
erant showman. As is not uncommon, however, in 
such cases, though ill enough to be haunted by the 
images, I was yet well enough to know that they were 
idle unrealities, the mere effect of indisposition, and 
even sufficiently collected to take an interest in watch- 
ing them as they arose, and in striving to determine 
whether they were linked together by the ordinary 
associative ties. I found, however, that they were 
wholly independent of each other. Curious to know 
whether the will exerted any power over them, I set 
myself to try whether I could not conjure up a death's 
head as one of the series ; but what rose instead was 
a cheerful parlor fire, bearing atop a tea-kettle ; and as 
the picture faded and then vanished, it was succeeded 
by a gorgeous cataract, in which the white foam, at 
first strongly relieved against the dark rock over which 
it fell, soon exhibited a deep tinge of sulphurous blue, 
and then came dashing down in one frightful sheet of 
blood. The great singularity of the vision served to 
freshen recollection, and I detected in the strange cat- 
aract every line and tint of the waterfall in the incan- 
tation scene in 'Dcr Freischutz/ which I had witnessed 
in the Theatre Uoyal of Edinburgh, with certainly no 
very particular interest, so long before. 



PICTURES ON THE RETINA AND BRAIN. 19 

"There are, I suspect, provinces in the philosophy 
of mind into which the metaphysicians have not yet 
entered. Of that accessible storehouse, in which the 
memories of past events lie arranged and taped up, 
they appear to know a good deal ; but of a mysterious 
cabinet of daguerreotype pictures, of which, though 
fast locked up on ordinary occasions, disease sometimes 
flings the door ajar, they seem to know nothing." * 

As reasonably might the Ptolemaic astronomer have 
supposed that he had discovered the boundaries of the 
material universe, as for the metaphysician to suppose 
that he has traversed and bounded the mental universe, 
which seems to be as infinite as space itself. 

" At the Leeds meeting of the British Association, 
Prof. Stevelly narrated the following anecdote : At the 
close of the last college session he had been in weak 
health, and had gone to his brother-in-law's seat in the 
country for a few weeks. While there, he had become 
greatly interested in the economy and habits of the 
bees. ' One morning, soon after breakfast, the servant 
came in to say that one of the hives was just beginning 
to swarm. The morning was a beautifully clear sunny 
one, and I stood gazing at the insects, as they appeared 
projected against the bright sky, rapidly and uneasily 
coursing hither and thither in most curious yet regular 
confusion, the drones making a humming noise much 
louder and sharper than the workers, from whom also 
they were easily distinguished by their size, but all 
appearing much larger in their rapid flights than their 
true size. In the evening, as it grew dark, I again 
went out to see the bee-hive, into which the swarm 

* My Schools and Schoolmasters, p. 332. 



20 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

had been collected, removed to its stand. Soon after I 
was much surprised to see, as I thought, multitudes of 
large flies coursing about the air. I mentioned it to 
my sister-in-law, who said I must be mistaken, as she 
had never seen an evening in which so few flies were 
abroad. Soon after, when I retired to my chamber, 
and knelt to my prayers before going to my rest, I 
was surprised to see coursing backward and forward, 
between me and the wall, what I now recognized as 
the swarm of bees, the drones quite easily distinguish- 
able from the workers, and all in rapid whirling motion, 
as in the morning. This scene continued to be present 
to me as long as I remained awake, and occasionally 
when I awoke in the night ; nor had it entirely faded 
away by the next night, although much less vivid. This 
was the first instance I had ever seen of moving 
impressions having become permanently impressed 
upon the retina, nor can I give the slightest guess at 
the modus operandi of the nerve. ' " * 

These visions, or re-visions as they may be termed, 
are not unknown to persons who are in sound mind 
and good health ; and I find with some they are so 
common, they never regard them as at all wonderful, 
supposing that all persons are conscious of them. In 
companies of five or six persons, I have sometimes 
found two, and at other times three, who often see 
ordinary objects with the eyes closed, especially such 
eua have frequently come before them during the day. 
I have just received a letter from a lady, in which 
Bhe aays: "Since strawberries began to ripen, or 
rather Bince I began to pick them, I can see nothing 

• I'liysiology of Common Lift , i.y (.. II. Lewea, Vol. n. p. 283. 



PICTURES ON THE RETINA AND BRAIN. 21 

else : they are before me whenever I close my eyes." 
Muller, to whom I have referred, says : " Any one 
who can watch the 'changes which take place in him- 
self, at the time when sleep is coming on, will some- 
times be able to perceive the images distinctly in the 
eyes. On waking, too, in a dark room, it sometimes 
happens that images of landscapes and similar objects 
still float before the eyes. Aristotle, Spinoza, and still 
more recently Gruithuisen, have made this observation. 
I have myself also very frequently seen these phan- 
tasms, but am now less liable to them than formerly." 

Generally these visions are seen with the eyes 
closed, and the observer has no power to produce or 
destroy them ; at other times they are seen with the 
eyes open, and can be produced at will. " A painter 
who inherited much of the patronage of Sir Joshua 
Reynolds, and believed himself to possess a talent 
superior to his, was so fully engaged that he told me, 
that he had painted three hundred large and small 
portraits in one year. The fact appeared physically 
impossible, but the secret of his rapidity and astonish- 
ing success was this : he required but one sitting of 
his model. I watched him paint a portrait in miniature 
in eight hours, of a gentleman whom I well knew ; it 
was carefully done, and the resemblance was perfect. 
I begged him to detail to me his method of procedure, 
and he related what follows : ' When a sitter came I 
looked attentively on him for half an hour, sketching 
from time to time on the canvas. I did not require a 
longer sitting. I removed the canvas and passed to 
another person. When I wished to continue the first 
portrait, I recalled the man to my mind. I placed him 



22 THE SOUL OF THINGS, 

on the chair, where I perceived him as distinctly as if 
he were really there, and, I may add, in form and 
color more decided and brilliant. I looked from time 
to time at the imaginary figure, and went on painting, 
occasionally stopping to examine the picture, exactly as 
though the original were before me ; whenever I looked 
toward the chair I saw the man. 

" ' This method made me very popular, and as I always 
caught the resemblance, the sitters were delighted 
that I spared them the annoying sittings of other 
painters. In this way I laid by much money for 
myself and my children.' " * 

Combe, in the. same valuable work on Phrenology, 
gives another instance of an individual in sound health, 
who was liable to the presentation of visions of objects 
that he had previously beheld. He says : u Several 
years ago I saw a person in the West of Scotland who 
was liable to spectral illusions. He was then thirty- 
eight years of age, in sound health, remarkably intelli- 
gent, and by no means liable to extravagance either in 
his statements or ideas. He mentioned that there was 
almost constantly present to his mind the appearance 
of a carpet in motion, and spotted with figures. On 
visiting Glasgow, he saw a large log of wood, mounted 
on two axles and four wheels, passing along the street ; 
and on returning home, the apparition of the timber 
and its vehicle, with the horses and driver, stood before 
him in tli>' dimensions and hues of actual existence. 

" On another occasion he saw a funeral pass by the 
end of Queen Street, in Glasgow, and for some time 
afterward, whenever he shut his eyes or was in dark- 

* Combe's Phrenology, p. 2'J8. 



PICTURES ON THE RETINA AND BRAIN. 23 

ness, the procession moved before his mind as distinctly 
as it had previously done before his eyes. These are 
merely a few instances, out of many, of beings and 
objects which he had seen reappearing to his fancy. 
He was not conscious of the appearance of any object 
which he had not previously seen ; and he was rarely? 
or almost never, troubled with these visions when 
actual existences were before his eyes in broad day- 
light; but at all times they appeared to a greater or 
less extent when his eyes were shut or darkness 
prevailed. He mentioned that this peculiarity had 
descended to his son." 

I know a family in which mother, daughter, and 
granddaughter all possess this peculiarity. " Spectral 
illusion " is, however, an improper name to designate 
that by, which is simply re-vision, or the retention of 
what has been seen, and its presentation to some inte- 
rior organ of vision, that human beings evidently pos- 
sess. 

Dr. Kitto says, " I retain a clear impression or 
image of everything at which I ever looked, although 
the coloring of that impression is necessarily vivid in 
proportion to the degree of interest with which the 
object was regarded. I find this faculty of much use 
and solace to me. By its aid I can live again at will 
in the midst of any scene or circumstances by which I 
have been once surrounded. By a voluntary act of 
mind I can in a moment conjure up the whole of any 
one out of the innumerable scenes in which the slight- 
est interest has at any time been felt by me." * 

From these facts it is evident, that the pictures 

* Body and Mind, Dr. George Moore, p. 206. 



24 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

taken in by the eye on ordinary occasions ; are, in some 
individuals at least, wonderfully enduring ; after many 
years retaining all the perfection of detail and beauty 
of coloring with which they were originally invested. 
And there is good reason to believe that this is the 
case with all persons; the pictures are retained, though 
conditions may not be favorable for their manifestation. 
If Hugh Miller and Dr. Macnish had never been at- 
tacked by disease, could they have credited the exist- 
ence in the mind of the pictures which they saw ? So 
the mass of mankind dream not of the existence in 
their own minds of all they ever saw ; there notwith- 
standing, and only waiting till the veil shall be re- 
moved. There is the little cradle in which we were 
rocked, and the faces that bent over it; the oak under 
whose branches we played and whose acorns were our 
treasures. The old school-house is there, and the por- 
trait of every boy and girl that sat in it with us. 
There hang all the landscapes we ever beheld ; their 
numberless hills, streams, fields, trees, beasts and birds; 
in all lights and shades, from early morn to dewy eve; 
in all seasons, when Winter spreads his snowy mantle 
to hide his nakedness, and when Summer sits smiling 
at the beautiful prospect. In that gallery are all the 
men and women we ever saw; the hurrying crowd that 
swept past us in New York, Boston, or London — none 
went so swiftly but he left his portrait. No beggar 
but carries about with him pictures, that outnumber 
and outvie all that art has made since the day of its 
birth, — pictures better colored than Titian's, more 
original than Raphael's, more beautiful than Guido's, 
and more natural than Hogarth's. In sleep we some- 



PICTURES ON THE RETINA AND BRAIN. 25 

times wander through this soul's picture-gallery, and 
catch glimpses of its beauty ; but of its grandeur and 
perfection we have not even dreamed. 

Wild as the statement may seem, I have no doubt that 
our minds receive and retain impressions of what is 
transpiring around us, even when we are unconscious 
at the time of what is taking place. " A boy, whose 
case is given by Dr. Abercrombie, was obliged at the 
age of five years to have his skull trepanned, it having 
been fractured by a fall from a window. He was of 
course quite insensible at the time, and after his recov- 
ery had no recollection either of the accident or the 
operation. But when a grown man, fourteen years 
after, he was attacked with fever ; and during the con- 
sequent delirium he astonished his mother with an 
account of the operation, describing minute particu- 
lars, even to the dress worn by the surgeon, all which 
his mother knew to be correct. He never alluded to 
it in his after life."* The probability of this will 
become more apparent as we proceed. 

* Lecture by W. J. Fox. 



CHAPTER II. 

PICTURES ON SURROUNDING OBJECTS. 

The rays of light, proceeding from objects in the 
light, have the power of forming pictures on other bod- 
ies, as well as on the retina of the eye. If the body 
be sufficiently opaque and polished, we can readily see 
them, as in an ordinary mirror, or a polished plate of 
metal, or water; as we observe in the river the trees 
that grow by its margin ; and although when the 
object is removed no picture is visible, there is good 
reason to believe that the picture thus formed is nearly, 
if not entirety, as enduring as the substance on which 
it is formed. 

"We visit a daguerrean room and sit before the 
camera ; while thus sitting our picture is formed on a 
prepared silver plate, and while we sit it is distinctly 
visible upon it ; it is taken out of the camera, and now, 
nothing whatever can be seen; a searching microscopic 
investigation discovers no line; but, on a suitable appli- 
cation, the image appears as if by magic. It is qo 
more there, now that it is visible, than it was before; 
all that has been done is to make that visible which as 
really existed on (lie plate before, or no application 
could have revealed it. If the process of making 
images visible had never been discovered, who 
could have believed that an imago was formed upon a 



PICTURES ON SURROUNDING OBJECTS. 27 

plate under such circumstances, and lay sleeping there 
till art should awaken it ? 

If the silvered plate had not been previously made 
sensitive, some will say, the image of the sitter would 
never have been retained ; but facts prove that this is 
incorrect. G-. H. Lewes says, " If a wafer be laid on 
a surface of polished metal, which is then breathed 
upon, and if, when the moisture of the breath has 
evaporated, the wafer be shaken off, we shall find that 
the whole polished surface is not as it was before, 
although our senses can detect no difference ; for if 
we breathe again upon it, the surface will be moist 
everywhere, except on the spot previously sheltered 
by the wafer, which will now appear as a spectral 
image upon the surface. Again and again we breathe, 
and the ■ moisture evaporates, but still the spectral 
wafer reappears. This experiment succeeds after the 
lapse of many months, if the metal be carefully put 
aside where its surface cannot be disturbed: 77 On try- 
ing a similar experiment, I have repeatedly brushed 
the surface of the polished plate with a camel's hair 
brush, and yet, on breathing upon it, the image of a 
coin previously laid upon it was distinctly visible. 

" If a sheet of paper on which a key has been laid, 
be exposed for some minutes to the sunshine, and then 
instantaneously viewed in the dark, the key being 
removed, a fading spectre of the key will be visible. 
Let this paper be put aside for many months where 
nothing can disturb it, and then in darkness be laid 
upon a plate of hot metal, the spectre of the key will 
again appear. 

" In the case of bodies more highly phosphorescent 



28 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

than paper, the spectres of many different objects which 
may have been laid on in succession will, on warming, 
emerge in their proper order." 

" If a screen cut in a pattern be held over a polished 
■metallic surface at a small distance, and the whole 
breathed on, after the vapor has evaporated so that no 
trace is left upon the surface, the pattern comes out 
when it is breathed on again." 

These are facts whose truth can be readily test- 
ed. Here there is no previous preparation beyond 
that of producing the polished surface, and yet images 
are formed, even without contact. And where the 
surface of a body is unpolished, there is no doubt that 
pictures are still formed upon it, though the difficulty 
of making them visible is greatly increased. Thus 
Sir David Brewster, whose authority on this subject 
cannot be questioned, says, "All bodies throw off 
emanations in greater or less size and with greater or 
less velocities ; these particles enter more or less into 
the pores of solid and fluid bodies, sometimes resting 
upon their surface, and sometimes permeating them alto- 
gether. These emanations, when feeble, show them- 
selves in images; when stronger, in chemical changes; 
when stronger still, in their action on the olfactory 
nerves ; and when thrown off most copiously and rap- 
idly, in heat affecting the nerves of touch; in photo- 
graphic action, dissevering and recombining the ele- 
ments of nature; and in phosphorescent and luminous 
emanations, exciting the retina and producing vision." 

These emanations of which ho speaks are passing 
from all bodies by night as well as day, and have 
(lie power of transferring the appearances of objects 



PICTURES ON SURROUNDING OBJECTS. 29 

to others in their vicinity, not merely upon their sur- 
faces, but even into their interiors, so that the rough- 
ness of a body can be no hindrance to its reception of 
these pictures. 

Niepce de St. Victor, " having exposed to the sun 
for a quarter of an hour an engraving which had been 
kept several days in the dark, applied it to a sheet 
of sensitive paper, and after four hours' contact in the 
dark he obtained a negative picture of the engraving. 
If the distance between the engraving and the paper 
is one-eighth of an inch, or if a film of collodion or 
gelatine is interposed, the picture will still be ob- 
tained.' 7 * 

More recent experiments show that the previous 
exposure to the sunshine is unnecessary. " The im- 
pression of an engraving was made by laying 'it face 
downward on a silver plate iodized, and placing an 
amalgamated copper plate upon it ; it was left in dark- 
ness fifteen hours, when an impression of the engrav- 
ing had been made on the amalgamated plate through 
the paper." f The same may be done, it is said, on 
plates of iron, zinc, or copper. "An iodized silver 
plate was placed in darkness with a coil of string on 
it, and with a polished silver plate suspended one- 
eighth of an inch above it ; after four hours they were 
exposed to the vapors of mercury, which became uni- 
formly deposited on the iodized plate ; but on the sil- 
ver one there was a sharp image of the string ; so that 
the image was formed in the dark, and even without 
contact." f 

* See Annuals of Scientific Discovery from 1858. 
f Mrs. Soraerville's Connection of the Physical Sciences, p. 237. 
3* 



30 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

That photographic impressions are not confined tD 
the mere surfaces on which they are visible, is evident. 
Every daguerreotypist knows the difficulty there is in 
effacing impressions from a plate ; for after polishing a 
plate once used, and using it again, the image of the 
former sitter, to the chagrin of the artist, will fre- 
quently reappear. After a photographic impression 
upon a plate has been to all appearance wholly re- 
moved by polishing, so that another image could be 
taken upon it without the reappearance of the former, 
repeated discharges of electricity will reproduce the 
impression, showing that it had sunk into the sub- 
stance of the plate to a considerable depth. And 
since this is the case, it must be evident that the 
roughness of a body is no hindrance to the formation 
of pictures upon or within it ; for the condition of the 
surface can make no difference in the capability of the 
interior to receive impressions. 

The rapidity with which photographic impressions 
may be made is shown by the following experiment : 
" A wheel was made by Mr. Talbot to revolve as rap- 
idly as a combination of multiplying wheels could 
make it fly ; and when lit by an electric flash its pho- 
tograph was taken, and in it every spoke was distinctly 
visible as if the wheel had been at perfect rest, though 
the duration of the illuminating spark, according to 
the experiments of Prof. Wheatstone, is only one-mil- 
lionth of a second." * 

Apply these indisputable facts, and in the world 
around us radiant forces arc passing from all objects 
to all objects in their vicinity, and during every mo* 

♦Annual of Scicntiiic Discovery for 1880, p. 102. 



PICTURES ON SURROUNDING OBJECTS. 31 

ment of the day and night are daguerreotyping the 
appearances of each upon the other ; the images thus 
made, not merely resting npon the surface, but sinking 
into the interior of them ; there held with astonishing 
tenacity, and only waiting for a suitable application to 
reveal themselves to the inquiring gaze. You cannot, 
then, enter a room by night or day, but you leave on 
going out your portrait behind you. You cannot lift 
your hand, or wink your eye, or the wind stir a hair of 
your head, but each movement is infallibly registered 
for coming ages. The pane of glass in the window, 
the brick in the wall, and the paving-stone in the 
street, catch the pictures of all passers-by, and faith- 
fully preserve them. Not a leaf waves, not an insect 
crawls, not a ripple moves, but each motion is recorded 
by a thousand faithful scribes in infallible and indeli- 
ble scripture. 

This is just as true of all past time. From the 
first dawn of light upon this infant globe, when 
round its cradle the steamy curtains hung, to this 
moment, Nature has been busy photographing every 
moment. What a picture-gallery is hers ! There are 
the heaving crust, as the fiery tides pass under it ; the 
belching volcanoes, the glaring lava torrents, the con- 
densing waters, the rushing floods, and the terrible 
struggles of the early stormy times ; the watery ex- 
panse unshored ; the new-born naked islands peeping 
above the waves; the first infusorial points, too small to 
leave a fossil trace behind them ; and the earliest fucoids 
that clung to the wave-washed rock. Every radiate 
and mollusc of the Silurian era, every ganoid of the 
Devonian, has sat for its portrait, and here it is. Not a 



32 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

leaf that grew in the Carboniferous forests, not a beetle 
that crawled, nor frog that hopped ; not a monster of 
the Oolite, nor beast of the Tertiary, wanting. There 
are grand panoramas of the past, containing all that 
man ever did, — the first rude savages of the world, 
their hunts, their wars, their progress ; the history of 
all nations and peoples from the cradle to the grave. 
u They may be there," says the cool reader, " but how 
shall we be able to see them ? None but a madman 
would dream of such a thing." 

It would be strange if Nature admitted no mortal 
to her matchless galleries ; if, after employing myriads 
of artists in drawing the waking and sleeping world, 
she should permit no human eye to behold her instruc- 
tive pictures. To catch a shadow, was once- the acme 
of the impossible ; now, country lads, with a camera 
for a trap, do it in almost every little village. And 
this is in appearance no greater impossibility than that 
was once regarded. There is nothing more difficult 
than to tell what can not be done ; and many wise 
men have made themselves foolish prophets in attempt- 
ing it, 

I know of no chemical application that can make 
visible to ordinary observers these pictures with which 
all objects abound ; but in some individuals the brain 
is sufficiently sensitive to perceive them when it is 
brought into proximity to the objects on which they 
are impressed. 



CHAPTER III. 



PSYCHOMETRY. 



This discovery was made in consequence of reading 
of Dr. Buchanan's researches and discoveries in another 
department of this great field ; and some account of 
his discoveries is necessary in order to the understand- 
ing of this. In 1849 he writes : "About nine years 
since, in conversation with Bishop , of the Episco- 
pal Church, he informed me that his own sensibility 
was so acute, that if he should by accident touch a 
piece of brass, even in the night, when he could not 
see what he touched, he immediately felt the influence 
through his system, and could recognize the offensive 
metallic taste."* This remark would have led to 
nothing farther, had it been related to many, but in 
this case the right thing was told to the right man; 
and he commenced a series of experiments, placing 
metals of various kinds into the hands of persons of 
great sensibility, and in this way found that there 
was a number who possessed the power of naming 
metals, without any knowledge but that which was 
communicated in this way by touch. As the experi- 
ments were continued, it was found that other sub- 
stances could thus affect sensitive individuals. " Su- 
gar, salt, pepper, acids, and other substances of a de- 

* Buchanan's Journal of Man, Vol. I. p. 51. 



34 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

cicled taste, made so distinct an impression that each 
could be recognized and named, by many of those 
upon whom the experiment was performed. These 
experiments were carefully performed ; the substance 
either concealed from sight, or enveloped in paper, and 
sometimes no person present knew what substance 
was being tested until the close of the experiment, 
Out of a class of one hundred and thirty students at 
the Eclectic Medical College, Cincinnati, forty-three of 
them signed a declaration that when various medicines 
were enveloped in paper, so as to be unknown to 
them, by holding them in their hands from five to 
twenty minutes, the distinct effects were produced 
upon them similar to those which would have been 
produced by the action of the same medicines admin- 
istered in the ordinary way. Dr. Buchanan adds that 
" when an emetic was the subject of the experiment, 
the individual was able to avoid vomiting only by sus- 
pending the experiment." * 

After proceeding thus far, he thought that sensitive 
persons might be affected by contact with living beings 
in a similar manner; and this conjecture he found 
abundantly verified by experiment. Persons of highly 
impressible constitution could, by placing the hand on 
different portions of the head and body, "experience 
at each point a distinct effect, corresponding to the 
peculiar vital functions of the part. Nor was contact 
absolutely necessary. Highly sensitive persons com 
ing into the presence of diseased individuals, recog- 
nized the disease, and were able at once to locate it/*' 

Without giving all the steps taken by Dr. Bdchanan 

• n:il of Alan, Vol. I., paj 



PSYCHOMETRY. 35 

in his researches, it may be sufficient to say that about 
two years after making his first discoveries, he found 
individuals so sensitive that the influence communi- 
cated by the writer to a letter could be recognized by 
them, when the letter was placed in contact with the 
forehead, and in some cases the character and habits 
of the individual writing the letter could be thus given 
with wonderful accuracy. 

This will doubtless seem to some too marvellous for 
belief; but the evidence on this subject is now over- 
whelming. I know numbers of persons who by tak- 
ing a letter in the hand, or placing it on the forehead, 
without seeing the writing, or having the slightest 
idea of the writer, can describe his character with as 
great, or greater accuracy than his most intimate 
friends. Any person desirous of testing this can read- 
ily do so. 

On reading the statements of Dr. Buchanan, I re- 
solved to see what portion of them I could verify by 
experiment. My sister, Anne Denton Cridge, being 
highly impressible, was able, in a short time, to read 
character from letters readily ; and what was still more 
wonderful to us, and at the same time inexplicable, 
was, that at times she saw and described the writers of 
letters she was examining, and their surroundings, 
telling, at times, even the color of hair and eyes cor- 
rectly. 

After testing this thoroughly by numerous exper- 
iments, being intensely interested in geology and pale- 
ontology, it occurred to me that perhaps something 
might be done by psychometry — the term .given by 
Dr. Buchanan to the power by which character was de- 



3§ THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

scribed by contact with persons, or from letters — in 
these departments of science. If there could be im- 
pressed upon a letter the image of the writer and his 
surroundings during the brief space of time that the 
paper was subjected to their influence, — and this was 
the conclusion I eventually arrived at, — why could 
not rocks receive impressions of surrounding objects, 
some of which they have been in the immediate neigh- 
borhood of for years, and why could they not com- 
municate these in a similar manner to sensitive per- 
sons ; thus giving us the clue to the conditions of the 
earth and its inhabitants during the vast eras of the 
past? 

I accordingly commenced, some ten years ago, a 
series of experiments with mineral and fossil speci- 
mens and archeological remains, and was delighted to 
find that without possessing any previous knowledge 
of the specimen, or even seeing it, the history of its 
time passed before the gaze of the seer like a grand 
panoramic view ; sometimes almost with the rapidity 
of lightning, and at other times so slowly and distinctly 
that it could be described as readily as an ordinary 
scene. The specimen to be examined was generally 
placed upon the forehead, and held there during the 
examination ; but this was not absolutely necessary, 
some psychometers being able to see when holding a 
specimen in the hand. 

The result of some of the experiments, made at vari- 
ous i iincs, I give in the words of the psychometer at 
the lime. In some cases the phraseology has been 
slightly changed, the idea never; and generally the 
exact words are given. 



CHAPTER IV. 



EXPERIMENTS. 



Our earliest experiments were by no means as sat- 
isfactory as they subsequently became ; the power of 
the psychometer increasing as the experiments con- 
tinued. Many of these are presented, because they 
show the manifestation of this power as we first be- 
came acquainted with it. 



EXPERIMENT I. 



Piece of limestone, full of small fossil shells, from 
Quindaro, Kansas, a small town on the Missouri River. 

Examined by my sister, Mrs. Cridge. Specimen un- 
seen, and nothing known by her regarding it. 

"It seems to me there is a deep hole here. Oh, 
what shells ! small shells ; so many. I see water ; it 
looks like a river running along. What a high hill ! 
almost perpendicular ; it seems as if the water had cut 
it in two ; it is not so high on the other side. The hill 
is covered with sand and gravel." 

In this case the present condition of the place, 
where I obtained the specimen, was given, and, as far 
as I am acquainted with the spot, it is a very accurate 
description. This piece of rock had taken in the pic- 
tures of the turbid Missouri that swept past it, the hill 

\l 37 



38 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

that hung over it, and the country in general around 
it, and, to the eye of the psychonieter, they became 
apparently as plainly visible as to a spectator on the 
spot. 

EXPERDIEXT II. 

Piece of quartz from Panama. 

Examined by my wife, Mrs. Denton. Saw it, but 
knew nothing respecting it. 

"I see what looks like a monstrous insect. Its body 
is covered with shelly rings, and its head is furnished 
with antennae that are nearly a foot long. It stands 
with its head against a rock that looks like this. I see 
an enormous snake coiled up among wild, wiry grass. 
The climate of the country seems to be much warmer 
than this ; the vegetation is tropical." 

The animal seen was probably a land crustacean of 
some kind. The whole of the vision is evidently in 
harmony with the tropical condition of the country, 
from which the specimen was obtained. 

EXPERIMENT III. 

Fragment of lava from Kilauea, on Hawaii, one of the 
Sandwich Islands. 

Mrs. Cridge. Specimen unseen by her. She had 
no idea of what it was, nor did she know that I pos- 
1 any such specimen. 

" I see the ocean, and ships sailing on it. This must 
be an island, for the water is all around. 

"Now I am turned from where I saw the vessels, 
and am looking at something most terrific. It seems 
;: ■ if ;m ocean of fire was pouring over a precipice, 
and boiling as it pours. The sight permeates my 



LAVA FROM KILAUEA. 39 

whole being, or the terror which it inspires. I see it 
flow into the ocean, and the water boils intensely. I 
seem to be standing on one side of it." 

The feeling of terror, produced by the sight, did not 
entirely pass off for an hour. It seemed to be as great' 
as if she had actually stood upon the spot, and beheld 
the whole as an ordinary spectator. 

Those who have read Mr. Coan's account of the 
eruption of Kilauea, in 1840, will see the accuracy of 
the description. The specimen of lava examined, 
which was not larger than a hazel-nut, was, I under- 
stood, ejected from Kilauea, during that eruption, 
when, as Mr. Coan says, " a river of fused minerals, of 
the breadth of Niagara, and of a gory red, fell in one 
emblazoned sheet, one raging torrent, into the ocean." 

There can be no guess-work about such a descrip- 
tion as this. I am well satisfied that my sister had not 
the most remote idea of what the substance was that 
she was trying, until the vision was presented to her 
view, nor indeed then ; and it will be seen, in experi- 
ments that I shall present, that my knowledge had 
nothing to do with calling up these images before her. 

EXPEEHIEST IV. 

I wrapped a number of specimens of various kinds 
in separate papers, and Mrs. Denton took one, neither 
of us knowing anything respecting it. She said, — 

" The first thing I see is a volcano, or what I take to 
be one. An elevation of considerable height appears 
before me, and down its side flows a torrent of melted 
matter, though torrent does not convey the idea; it is 
broad and shallow, and moves, not rapidly, like water, 



40 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

but creeps slowly along. Now I see another stream 
pour over the top of the first, and the whole side of 
the mountain is covered. This second flow moves 
much more rapidly than the first. This specimen must 
be lava," 

On examination it proved to be a piece of brick- 
colored lava, picked up on the banks of the Upper 
Missouri, where it is common; having been washed 
down probably from the Rocky Mountain region. 

"We have the means, then, by this wondrous power, 
of calling up and examining in minute detail the vol- 
canic eruptions of all time, provided we can obtain 
specimens of their products; — see TenerifTe's mighty 
crater when covered with glowing lava, and its surg- 
ing waves beat madly against the black, craggy preci- 
pices that gird them ; — read the story of Vesuvius, — 
that fiery old man of the mountain, — from the time 
that he was a screaming baby. Etna's history, written 
by his own finger, before the reed was fashioned or 
the papyrus prepared, will be read by coming savans, 
and his ruddy page shall shed new light on many dark 
and mysterious subjects. 

EXPERIMENT V. 

Fossil fish-bone found near Painesville, in a bone bed, 
of, probably, about the same age as the Hamilton group 
of the Devonian formation. 

Mrs. Poote. Had no idea of what it was. 

"I sec clouds o!' steam rising from the side of a 
hill, and <>n one side a Large ledge of* blue rocks. 

"I now see something long and dark that looks like 
a fish : there seems to be a large hump or bunch near 



FOSSIL FISH BONE. 41 

the head. I should think it is ten or twelve feet long, 
— perhaps not quite so long as that. I see now that 
there is no hump on its head. What I thought so is a 
rock that hangs over near its head. High rocks hang 
over the water, and trees grow on them, East of me 
is what seems to be the lake or ocean. I can see the 
bottom of the water ; it consists of sand and gravel. 
What a most beautiful place ! It seems so much so 
that it appears artificial." 

Some may think it strange that trees should be 
spoken of as growing during this period ; yet, I think, 
there is little doubt that the earth supported a luxuri- 
ant vegetation even before this period ; not as much 
so as during the succeeding Carboniferous period, but 
luxuriant compared with the flora of our temperate 
zone at this time. In the very bone-bed from which 
the specimen was taken, I found the impression of a 
tree nearly a foot in diameter. 

EXPERIMENT VI. 

Same specimen. 

Mrs. Denton. Had no knowledge of it, or of the 
previous examination. 

"I see a point of land extending into a large body 
of water. The water looks to me like a lake. It 
hardly seems large enough for the ocean. I can see 
along the shore for miles. There is a singular-looking 
object in the water, about eight or ten feet long; and, 
from just below the head, it tapers the whole length 
nearly to a point. It has a skin without scales, like a 
cat-fish. I see it dive obliquely down, fasten itself at 
the bottom, and then wave its body to and fro. This 



42 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

is a large fish. It has six fins ; two pectoral, two 
ventral, one caudal, and one anal. Its eyes and mouth 
are large. It has no teeth, but a hard, sharp, bony 
gum. It sucks its prey, and when doing so, the open- 
ing of the mouth is nearly round; but when closed, 
there are corners on each side." 

She now became fatigued ; but the examination was 
continued on the following day. 

" Now I see the skeleton of it within the body. 
There is a large bony plate below the head, and to it 
other bones are fastened in some way. The back-bone 
at the upper part is as large as my wrist, but not one- 
third as thick laterally as vertically ; but near the tail 
the vertebree are nearly circular. 

" I see roe within it. The eggs are quite large, but 
the layers are thin ; there are two of them, one lower 
than the other. The lower one is the more developed. 

" I catch a glimpse of a singular animal. The body 
seems roundish, but it is at such a distance, as well as 
in the water, that I cannot describe it minutely. The 
upper part is out of the water, and seems spread out 
like a sail, and the wind blows the animal along. It is 
so gau:;y that I can see the light through it; but there 
are dark lines that look like ribs supporting it ; and 
between the upright ribs are horizontal ones, jointed 
in the middle, that fold up in a very singular fashion, 
closing completely like a fan, when Hie animal wishes 
to sink. I sec eight or ten of them now near each 
other." 

There is considerable difference between the two 
descriptions, just as there would be in the descrip- 
tions of any scene, given by two independent observ- 



FOSSIL FISH BONE. 43 

ers. The scene in both cases is the shore of a large 
body of water ; both see a large fish, and nearly agree 
as to its length. It is, in both cases, the principal ob- 
ject seen, the bone of a fish being the subject of exam- 
ination, but neither person having any idea of it. 
What remarkable coincidences indeed, if this were 
mere guess-work, or chance. It might have been a 
piece of chert from a lead mine, shale from a coal mine, 
a fragment of a mastodon's tooth, or. bone from some ex- 
isting fish or beast. No mere ordinary sensation could 
have distinguished it from these ; yet, here, without a 
hint or question, the conditions present themselves to 
two independent observers, that, I think, paleontolo- 
gists will at least consider probably existed during the 
period when the fossil under consideration was a part 
of a living organism. 

What a peep into the Devonian times this gives us. 
Trees adorn the land ; the water, in places, at least, is 
clear enough to see the gravelly bottom ; large fishes 
are basking in it, and genuine Nautilidae, undreamed 
of by the naturalist, are floating upon the placid waters. 

What myriads of organic forms must have lived, 
with bodies that could not under any circumstances 
be preserved as fossils : jelly-fish, radiates of infinitely 
diversified forms ; mollusks, destitute of shells, or hav- 
ing shells too fragile for preservation. Of all these, the 
ordinary paleontologist knows no more than the histo- 
rian knows of nations that flourished before letters 
were invented, or than the ancient astronomers knew 
of planets invisible to the naked eye. As the tele- 
scope came to the assistance of the astronomer, and 
gave him more correct conceptions of known celestial 



44 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

bodies, and revealed to his gaze the otherwise invisi- 
ble worlds of space, so this psychometric power will 
shed new light upon many extinct animals and plants 
of which we have some knowledge, and reveal to us 
innumerable organic forms of whose existence, without 
its assistance, we should be as ignorant as the world 
was of the existence of Uranus and her moons before 
the telescope was invented. 

EXPERIMENT VII. 

Calcareous tufa from the Temple of Neptune, Pses- 
tum, twelve miles from Mount Vesuvius. 

Mrs. Denton. Specimen unseen, and nothing known 
by her regarding it. 

" I see near me deep ravines and high hills. Some 
of the hills appear destitute of vegetation and look 
rocky and naked. Others in the distance are worn 
down and appear covered with verdure, and a mellow 
light shines over the country. At the foot of a moun- 
tain, which looks to me like a volcano, are a few houses 
having the appearance of a village ; but they vanish 
almost instantly. That mountain is a volcano. I see 
smoke and vapor mingled issuing from it, and it 
spreads over so as to hide the view from me in that 
direction. The sea is behind inc. That mountain and 
its ejections arc more strikingly visible than anything 
else Around here is a great waste, as if the country 
had been covered by eruptions from the mountain, 
making a dark brown surface which is above the origi- 
nal leve] of the country." 

Why was not fche temple seen? it may be asked. I 
do nof know; but if the experiment had been contin- 



STEIATED LIMESTONE BLOCK. 45 

ued or renewed, I think it is probable that it would 
have been. Vesuvius seems, for the time being, to 
have overshadowed everything. 

EXPERIMENT VIII. 

Striated block of limestone, Grand River, Paines- 
ville, Ohio. 

Mrs. Denton. Saw the specimen, and may have had 
some idea of its nature. 

" I see a mountain ridge of ice, gorgeous, magnifi- 
cent, and yet terrible. The ridge has a sharp edge 
with deep notches in it. The sides are ragged. The 
whole mass seems moving slowly along. I can hear it 
grind and scrape as it passes over the rock. I believe 
it must be in water; it certainly could not move on 
land in that way. The lower part is in water." 
(Turned the specimen over.) "I see no water on this 
side, but great spires of ice rise very high." 

Nothing can seem much stranger than that the 
grinding sound of a moving glacier which passed over 
the country ages ago should have been communicated 
to, and retained by, an imbedded boulder, so as to be 
heard by a person to-day; and yet I am as well as- 
sured of its truth, as I am of anything that has not 
come within the sphere of my own sensation. If light 
can impress itself upon objects so that they retain its 
influence for centuries ; if radiant forces, proceeding 
from objects in the dark, can form pictures of those 
bodies upon contiguous bodies, — and these facts sci- 
ence recognizes, — why may not the waves of sound 
register themselves so as to perpetuate their exist- 
ence, and give that explanation to the ear that the eye 



48 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

of the psychometer demands, as the life-like panorama 
passes before it ? 

That sounds are registered in the human brain is 
evident ; and so thoroughly is this done that they can 
be heard by the individual years afterward, and, what 
is most surprising, with even more than their original 
clearness and force. 

Dr. Macnish, in his statement of the illusions to 
which he was subjected during an attack of fever 
referred to in page 16, says, " But though by closing 
my eyes I could thus dissipate the spectacle, I found 
it impossible to get rid of the accompanying music. 
This was the grand march in the opera of Aladdin, 
and was performed by the orchestra with more superb 
and imposing effect, and with greater loudness, than I 
had ever heard it before ; it was executed, indeed, 
with tremendous energy. This air I tried every effort 
to dissipate, by forcibly endeavoring to call other tunes 
to mind, but it was in vain. However completely the 
vision might be dispelled, the music remained in spite 
of every effort to banish it." 

The air played at the theatre was no more lost than 
the scene displayed; and under the peculiar condi- 
tions produced by the fever, it was executed with even 
greater effect than before. The outward ear probably 
heard not, but the inward ear heard more intensely 
than it was possible for the outward car to do. 

A blind man, mentioned by Dr. Macnish, was subject 
to illusions of sound ; " for lu' often bad the conscious- 
ness of bearing music so strongly impressed upon liim 
thai it was with difficulty bis friends could convince 
Iiini il was purely ideal." 



PHOTOTYPES. 47 

"In October, 1833, a woman, aged twenty-eight, 
born in Piedmont, went to a village ball ; she danced 
during three days in a sort of frenzy, and after- 
wards heard without cessation the melodies which had 
charmed her. They were Montferrines, and each gave 
place successively to the other. This continued until 
she died."* 

Probably she was diseased, and her disease produced 
such a condition of the brain that the melodies ex- 
isting there could be heard. Disease possesses no 
power to make sights or sounds ; they are in the brain, 
and all that disease does is, occasionally to produce 
the conditions by which they shall become manifest 
to the individual. Facts indicate that what we once 
hear, however carelessly, becomes indelibly impressed 
upon the mind, so that under extraordinary conditions 
it may be repeated with all the accuracy with which it 
was originally impressed. One step farther, and we 
have the impression made on material objects retained, 
then revealed to human consciousness, as in many of 
these experiments. 

Dr. Abercrombie, who deserves credit for recording 
many strange and valuable facts, relates the following : 
"A girl aged seven years, an orphan of the lowest 
rank, residing in the house of a farmer, by whom she 
was employed in attending cattle, was accustomed to 
sleep in an apartment separated by a very thin parti- 
tion from one which was frequently occupied by an 
itinerant fiddler. This person was a musician of very 
considerable skill, and often spent a part of the night 
in performing pieces of a refined description ; but his 

* De Boismont on Hallucinations, p. 316. 



48 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

performance was not taken notice of by the child, 
except as a disagreeable noise. After a residence of 
six months in this family she fell into bad health, and 
was removed to the house of a benevolent lady, where, 
on her recovery, after a protracted illness, she was 
employed as a servant. Some years after she came to 
reside with this lady, the most beautiful music was often 
heard in the house during the night, which excited 
no small interest and wonder in the family, and many 
a waking hour was spent in endeavors to discover the 
invisible minstrel. At length the sound was traced to 
the sleeping-room of the girl, who was found fast 
asleep, but uttering from her lips a sound exactly re- 
sembling the sweetest tones of a small violin. On 
farther observation it was found that, after being about 
two hours in bed, she became restless and began to 
mutter to herself; she then uttered sounds precisely 
resembling the tuning of a violin, and at length, after 
some prelude, dashed off into an elaborate piece of 
music, which she performed in a clear and accurate 
manner, and with a sound exactly resembling the most 
delicate modulation of the instrument, and then began 
exactly where she had stopped in the most correct 
manner. These paroxysms recurred at regular inter- 
vals, ranging from one to fourteen and even twenty 
nights, and they were generally followed by a degree 
of fever and pain over various parts of the body. 
When awake she showed no kind of turn for music." 

As nothing wo see is ever effaced, so nothing we 
hear ever dies out. Not only is there a wonderful 
cabinel in the mind containing pictures of all we ever 
saw, but there is also a storehouse of latent sounds 



PHONOTYPES. 49 

containing all we ever heard. The lullaby sung by 
our cradle, the patter of the rain upon the roof, the 
sighing of the wind, the roll of the thunder, the dash 
of the falling water, the murmur of affection, the oath 
of the inebriate, the hymn in the church, the song at 
the concert, the words of wisdom and folly, the whis- 
per of love, — all are faithfully registered. And our 
experiments have convinced me of what is still more 
difficult to believe, that all sounds register themselves 
on all objects within their influence, and that these 
phonotypes, as they may be termed, are almost, if not 
entirely, as enduring as the objects themselves. Phi- 
losophers tell us that " the slightest movement of the 
smallest body, in the remotest region, produces results 
which are perpetual, which diffuse themselves through 
all space, and which, though they may be metamor- 
phosed, cannot be destroyed." * These experiments 
demonstrate, to a great extent, the accuracy of this 
statement. 

If we could become at once cognizant of all the 
sounds that are locked up in the objects surrounding 
us, or in our own brains, what a din would be presented 
to our ears. Occasionally individuals seem to pass 
into this interior world of sounds, to their great aston- 
ishment. " A farmer in the neighborhood of Edin- 
burgh, accustomed to drink freely, was invited to the 
funeral of a friend. He took a dram before he left 
home, and another at the house of his deceased friend. 
He had some of his acquaintances to dinner, with 
whom he continued to carouse until late at night. On 
the following morning he heard five hundred people 

* Buckle's History of Civilization, Vol. II., p. 384. 



50 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

talking at once. He compared what he heard to the 
confusion of tongues at Babel."* The surgeon bled 
him, and in two days he was cured. 

As our experiments proceeded, the power of recog- 
nizing sounds increased, though it never became as 
active as the power of vision. 

Incredible as it may appear, all forces that operate 
upon bodies leave their impress upon them just as 
indelibly as the radiant forces. Or, in other words, 
what we call insensible matter receives the impression 
of whatever force is applied to it, treasures it up, and 
can impart it to a sufficiently sensitive individual. A 
, pebble, that has been rolled to and fro by the waves, 
retains the rolling sensation communicated to it, and 
with such tenacity that the heat of a furnace does not 
cause it to relinquish that hold. Thus every body 
retains, not only all that light and sound have commu- 
nicated to it, but all that motion has impressed upon 
it ; and the autobiography of the meanest boulder by 
the roadside would fill more volumes than all our 
libraries contain. The nail retains the impression 
made upon it by hammering, the clay by grinding, the 
brick by burning, the wool of the cloth, every step 
of the torturing process by which it was transferred 
from the back of the sheep to the back of the 
man. 

Eence it is, probably, that all fossil remains of an- 
imals are imbued with the feelings of the animals 
of which they formed a part, and, under their influence, 
the psychometer, for the time being, feels all that was 
fell, I » v lln'in; and l!ms tifrfe. characteristic actions of 



■ !>; ea i <>i the Brain and Mind, Winslow, p. 310. 



GLACIAL SCRATCHED PEBBLE. 51 

monsters that have been extinct for millions of years 
can be accurately realized and described. This branch 
of psychometry may be termed psychopathy ; and I 
find that generally, in examining specimens, seeing 
and feeling go together ; though some psychometers 
only see, while others feel most readily the influence 
of a specimen, but can see nothing. 

. EXPERIMENT IX. 

Pebble of Trenton limestone, with glacial scratches 
upon its surface, picked up near Lyons, Wayne county, 
New York. 

Mrs. Denton. Specimen unseen and unknown. 

" I feel as if I were below an immense body of water, 
— so deep that I cannot see down through it, and yet 
it seems as if 1 could see upward through it for miles. 
Now I am going, going, and there is something above 
me, I cannot tell what. It is pushing me on. It is 
above and around me. It must be ice ; I. am frozen in. 
The motion of the mass I am in is not uniform ; it 
pitches forward, then halts and pitches again, then 
goes grinding, pressing, and crushing along, a moun- 
tain mass. 

"All is dark. Now, I see a tinge of crimson, mixed 
with purple. What can it be ? How beautiful ! I feel 
water again, as if I were drenched with it." (What 
kind of water is it?) " It is not rain. It seems like a 
mixture of fresh and salt water ; a little while the one 
and then the other. I see lights before me, apparently 
reflected from rising vapors. They are finer and more 
broken than those I saw before, and reflect the colors 
of the rainbow. 



OH TEE SOUL OF THINGS. 

" What an awful chasm we are approaching ; we can- 
not cross it without being dashed to pieces I am sure. 
I say we, because I feel completely distinct from the 
mass that moves me. There is that chasm again ! It 
is terrific ! We are going right to it, dashing most 
recklessly. We shall never get out or across. (Pause.) 
That is most astonishing. I felt desperate as we ap- 
proached the brink, but it was full of water, and we 
floated across. I wonder if that is not the lake ? so 
deep and so broad. Why did I not see the water? 
The first I knew, I felt the sensation of floating. Now 
we are aground. All around us is shallow water, ex- 
cept a few islands, which are not high enough to be 
dry. 

"Now, I see. ice before me over a wide field. There 
are thousands of spires melting gradually away. There 
is a flood all over the country, but the water is not 
very deep. There is a shallow sea this side of the 
chasm, except a little spot of land here and there, and 
that is completely water-soaked. 

"There are five icebergs in sight, some of them as 
high as mountains ; they are anchored ; the sight is in- 
describably grand. There is another at my right that 
has a tall spire and a large mass for a body. It is rock- 
ing, and I believe will tip over yet. It is rounded at 
the base. There is a current in the water that dis- 
turbs it." 

W'IkiI a line picture of the Latter part of the drift 
period in North America, when a sheet of ice covered a 
large part of Canada and British America, 'from Lake 
Ontario, which was then probably an arm of the ocean, 
to the Arctic regions; as at the present lime a glacial 



GLACIAL SCRATCHED PEBBLE. 53 

sheet covers northwestern Greenland. On comes the 
icy mass toward the south, the only direction in which 
motion is possible, because the only direction in which 
the ice can melt, and room be found for the mass con- 
stantly increasing by falling snows. On it comes, bearing 
with it the rocks that it tears off in its passage, slides 
into this arm of the sea that we have supposed to 
occupy the place of Lake Ontario, thus forms icebergs, 
which float southward till they strand on what is now 
the northern part of the State of New York, and leave 
their rocky burdens to form the boulders that are so 
common over the face of that country. 

How often, on looking at some gray old boulder, 
we have wished it could relate its history, and tell us 
what had passed before and around it during its event- 
ful career. Little did we dream of the possibility 
of that, and more than that. These "hard heads" 
are wise heads, too, in a sense, and much they can 
teach us when we are prepared to learn. They are 
" chiels takin' notes," indifferent spectators though 
they appear, and what they report may be depended 
upon as true. What is described by the psychometer 
is but a small portion of what is presented. At times, 
one panoramic view after another is unfolded in too 
rapid succession for the most meagre description. 

I know the explanation that some will offer to ac- 
count for these marvels. The self-confident biologist 
says, " I know well how it is done ; I can make my 
subjects see anything that I have in my mind. I imag- 
ine a snake, a crocodile, a volcano, and they are seen 
at once by my subjects ; and this is done in the same 
manner." He is mistaken, however. I have repeat- 



54 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

edly tried to influence the minds of psychcmeters } 
when making examinations, and at all times without 
avail. Many specimens have been examined when no 
one knew what they were, and yet the results were 
quite as accurate as at any other time ; indeed, in 
almost every case, statements have been made and 
ideas advanced of which we had not previously the 
most distant thought. Take the following example : -»- 

EXPERIMENT X. 

Out of a number of minerals and fossils lying upon 
the table, Mrs. Denton, with closed eyes, picked up 
one, no one knowing its character. 

" I am in the ocean, deep under the water. I can 
see a long way, for the water is clear. There are mil- 
lions of minute coral polyps busily at work. I am 
looking down upon them. I observe one kind of coral 
that is very peculiar; it is a foot in diameter at the bot- 
tom, and rises in terraces to the top, where it is much 
smaller. I should judge this specimen to be coral, or 
something worked over by coral, though it feels noth- 
ing like it." 

On examination it proved to be a piece of flat 
coral about an inch long and an eighth of an inch 
in thickness, from the Niagara group of the Silu- 
rian formation, at Lockport, N. Y. This is a specimen 
of various experiments tried in a somewhat similar 
manner and with like results, conclusively demonstrat- 
ing that the biological explanation is an incorrect one. 

EXPERIMENT ZL 

A sum!] fragment of the enamel of a mastodon's 
tooth, cul off so that il tnighl not be recognized, being 



ENAMEL OF MASTODON'S TOOTH. 55 

about one-twentieth of an inch in thickness, and three- 
tenths of an inch in diameter. The tooth was dug, by 
miners in search of lead, out 'of a crevice thirty feet 
beneath the surface, near Hazel Green, Wisconsin. 

Mrs. Denton. She did not see it, and had no idea of 
what it was. 

" My impression is that it is a part of some monstrous 
animal, probably a part of a tooth. I feel like a per- 
fect monster, with heavy legs, unwieldy head, and 
Very large body. I go down to a shallow stream to 
drink. (I can hardly speak, my jaws are so heavy.) 
I feel like getting down on all fours. 

"What a noise comes through the wood ! I have an 
impulse to answer it. My ears are very large and 
leathery, and I can almost fancy they flap my face as 
I move my head. There are some older ones than I. 
(It seems so out of keeping to be talking with these 
heavy jaws.) They are dark brown, as if they had 
been completely tanned. There is one old fellow, with 
large tusks, that looks very tough. I see several 
young ones ; in fact, there^s a whole herd. 

" My upper lip moves strangely. I can flap it up. 
It seems strange to me how it is done. 

" There is a plant growing here higher than my 
head; it is nearly as thick as my wrist, very juicy, 
sweet and tender, something like green corn in taste, 
but sweeter.' 7 (Is that the taste it would have to a 
human being?) "Oh, no" (appearance of disgust on 
the countenance); "it is sickish, and very unpleasant." 

The complete identification at times of the psy- 
chometer with the thing psychometrized, or the ani- 
mal with whose influence it is imbued, is one of the 



56 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

remarkable facts developed by our experiments, and it 
throws light upon some of the most mysterious departs 
ments of nature. Some forms of insanity appear to 
present a condition produced by intense sensitiveness, 
resulting in the overpowering of the mind by sur- 
rounding influences, so that the individual ceases to 
be himself, and becomes the tool for those influences 
unconsciously to use ; the individual supplying the 
power, but the influences directing and spending it, 
instead of the will of the individual. 

Some manifestations considered to be spiritual come 
under this head, and may be readily accounted for in 
this way. You cannot walk into and out of a room 
without leaving a portion of your influence in that 
room, which will continue as long as the bricks and 
mortar endure. You cannot sit upon a chair but the 
chair receives from you that which can convey to some- 
sensitive persons the idea of your presence and your 
mental peculiarities. Hence our houses- — made of 
brick, from clay over which the Indian passed and re- 
passed ; with their letters from hundreds of persons, 
some living, some dead; with objects in them handled 
at some time by men of many races ; arrow-heads made 
by Indians, tea fingered by Chinese, coffee and cotton 
by negroes, ivory-handled knives and forks, the ivory 
of which passed through the hands of Samoides and 
Uuss ; abounding with impressions made by persons 
who have visited them — are conventions of unseen in- 
fluences representing thousands of diverse individuals, 
the sphere of which sensitive persons can and fre- 
quently <1" recognize, and are affected by, without 
being aware of llie source from which it proceeds. I 



BIRD TRACKS OF THE CONNECTICUT. 51 

say not this from any desire to throw discredit upon 
the fact of present communication between the spirit- 
world and our own, for this J know to be absolutely so ; 
but it will be found, as Science marches on with her 
hosts, and conquers the dark realm where ghosts and 
witches and fairies have revelled for ages, that much 
which is supposed to come from another world is the 
offspring of our own. 

EXPERIMENT XII. 

In the summer of 1861, I obtained a small fragment 
from a slab containing the impression of two toes of 
one of the bird-like tracks from the Connecticut Val- 
ley. It was but a mere speck, not more than a quar- 
ter of an inch long and one-twentieth of an inch thick; 
but it was quite large enough to tell some wonderful 
tales of a remarkable time. 

Mrs. Denton. Specimen not seen, and not a word 
had ever been uttered in reference to my possession 
of it, and since we were in the Far West at the time 
of the examination, she could have had no idea of its 
original whereabouts. 

"There is some magnetism about this. I have a 
glimpse of a long, broad, flat place, frequently washed 
by water ; it is sufficiently rolling, however, to prevent 
the water from remaining upon it. Whether it is the 
edge of the sea or not I cannot tell, but there lies 
before me a large body of water. 

" I begin to get the outline of objects moving, some 
on this flat and some among bushes that grow near 
there. One that I see attracts my attention much by 
its great singularity ; it is without exception the 



58 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

strangest-looking being I ever saw. (When I go back 
so far, there is a difficulty in seeing objects at a dis- 
tance, which I think is owing to the thick, heavy at- 
mosphere of those early times.) One of these animals 
is right before me now ; it has a rather long, small 
neck. A second one appears with a flat head and a 
neck tapering rapidly to it. The first one has a flat- 
tish head ; from that there is an angle to the back, and 
then another to the tail. As it moves, its back rises 
and falls, and it looks as if the arch of the back assisted 
in propelling it. Now I see three other backs, but no 
other part. (I had a glimpse just then of a turtle.) 
That animal I saw puzzles me ; it seems to be deficient 
in legs, though I cannot see them distinctly. It goes 
very easily, though its motion is so singular. Its legs 
are short, and the angles of the body are not far from 
the ground. It moves with a good deal of rapidity. 
It has flat-looking feet, wide enough for it to balance 
itself upon. It has just two feet. There ! I know 
what it is now. It is that two-footed reptile I have 
read about. From foot to foot it measures, I should 
think, about four feet." 

Second examination, made two days after, from a 
larger portion of the same slab. 

" Its head veiy much resembles in form the head of 
a snake, and its neck is long and gracefully arched, 
lis scapula is long, extending on each side of the neck 
a Little beyond its articulation with the humerus, which 
appears to be on the under side. At first I thought the 
scapula projected beyond the articulation, but I be- 
qow thai it is a bone united to it by a joint, and 
Connected with other I tones, that elevate what look 



BIRD TRACKS OF THE CONNECTICUT. 59 

like wings on each side of its body. Lifting its fore 
foot it can sit upon its hind foot, assisted by the tail ; 
then, giving a spring, pass through the air for quite a 
distance. It does not seem to move its wings during 
the transit, but they act like parachutes, in its descent, 
and it comes gently down. 

" I cannot see any teeth ; but in the place of them 
appears to be a bony gum. It is carnivorous, and 
feeds upon fish and reptiles. I can taste how sweet 
they were to it. It had a motion of its head among 
the weeds in the water like that of a duck. There is 
something about it that resembles the opossum, but 
whether it is marsupial or not I cannot say. 5 ' 

Some time after this, many specimens from various 
localities having been examined in the intervening 
time, we tried another fragment of a slab from the 
same locality, Mrs. D. as before knowing nothing of 
the nature of the specimen. 

" I see an animal that approaches the mammal in ap- 
pearance more closely than those animals I saw some 
time ago. It has claws, and is digging or scratching 
in the earth. Its long tail, with a bunch on the end 
of it, is elevated. It has a long body, and is a quadru- 
ped. It is somewhat reptilian in appearance, and yet 
it seems to be a mammal. It is carnivorous and very 
savage." 

If minute fragments can yield so much to the psy- 
chometer, what may we not expect when the quarries 
of the Connecticut valley are interrogated ; when the 
pictures preserved in its slabs are copied by psycho- 
metric artists, and its wonderful menageries of orni- 



60 - THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

thoid lizards and sauroid mammals are brought before 
us for inspection? 

EXPERIMENT XIII. 

Some two years afterwards, having obtained a larger 
specimen in Albany, which was taken from the same 
locality, Mrs. D. examined it as before. 

" I see the bed of a stream that is partly dry. It is 
broad, and sometimes rises high. The banks here are 
low and sloping. There is rock on the other side. 

" I am farther south and southeast now. I see an 
extensive tract of low, even ground. It seems naked, 
and looks as if washed by water sufficiently to prevent 
the growth of vegetation upon it. I see the appear- 
ances of bodies moving through the air, but they are 
partly hidden. That low, flat ground seems to be con- 
nected with the river, and there seems to be a min- 
gling of salt and fresh water here." 

" I see multitudes of objects. They swarm around 
me ; there are fishes among them ; they change rap- 
idly. What strange-looking animals there are here ! 
This seems to be the shore of the ocean, covered by 
the tide and then left bare. 

" One animal I see with a very long neck ; it has 
wings, but docs not look like a bird; the wings are 
bat-like; but the animal is, I think, a reptile. There 
are many of them hero, and they look like those I saw 
in Chicago, willi a specimen from the Connecticut val- 
ley. They have exactly the 3ame appearance. 

"I set; another animal with feathered wings, but 
they are the coarsest-looking feathers I ever saw. 
One is very near me ; ii is lightish-colored, with a red- 



BIRD TRACKS OF THE CONNECTICUT. 61 

dish tinge. There are many among weeds that grow 
in stagnant water, of which there is a large body be- 
tween here and the main land. The head and neck 
are reptilian in form ; the mouth is large t and the jaws 
are very different from the bill of a bird. I see one 
drinking; but it does not raise its head to swallow as 
a bird does. It sits up like a bird, but has a slimy 
appearance, notwithstanding its feathers, which are 
thin and wide apart ; they look stiff and unfinished. 
The barbs on the shaft are widely separated, and the 
feathers look something like those of a drowned bird. 
I see some of these animals in the air ; their wings are 
thick near the body, and gradually become thinner 
toward the edges, where they are membranous. 

" Here is a large monster that looks as if it might 
devour all these ; but it is sluggish in its movements. 
It is a reptile, with a head like a crocodile, but larger. 
It has enormous jaws, large eyes, small neck, and 
broad shoulders. It is looking at the other animals, 
and crawling softly toward them. It has a sly look. 
It is crested with an edge of thick points all along the 
back. (I feel as if I should be swallowed alive, with 
so many rapacious monsters around me.) 

" I see another animal, with a tail of great length, 
that curls round and round just like a snake. It looks 
like the body of a serpent joined to the body of a liz- 
ard. It may be five or six feet long ; but the body is 
not more than two. feet. I believe it could draw the 
head in and dart it out for some distance. It seems 
like a link between the lizard and the serpent. Its 
tail winds and unwinds rapidly, sometimes in the air, 
and sometimes on the ground. 



62 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

" The only thought manifested here is, on the one 
hand, to devour, and, on the other, to escape being de- 
voured." 

These descriptions will be appreciated by those who 
have made the sandstones of the Connecticut valley 
and their footprints a matter of study. They give a 
life-like, and, I doubt not, accurate picture of the time 
when the valley of the Connecticut resembled the 
Bristol Channel or the Bay of Fundy, having rivers 
pouring in large bodies of muddy water, and high 
tides, which deposited sediment over wide areas on 
each side ; and these left baking in the sunshine until 
the return tide. Over this surface crept, crawled, 
wriggled and stalked the strange organic forms of this 
time, — slimy reptiles, and more slimy worms, walking 
fishes, and rude reptilian birds, foot-prints of which are 
so numerous in various portions of the valley. 

EXPERD1EXT XIV. 

Whalebone walking-cane. 

Mrs. Denton knew it was a walking-cane, but, hav- 
ing no opportunity of examining it, supposed very nat- 
urally that it was a wooden one. 

" I feel as if I am a monster. There is nothing of a 
tree about it, and it is useless for mo to go any far- 
ther." (With great difficulty she was induced to con- 
tinue the experiment.) "I feel like vomiting. Now I 
want to plunge into the water." (.Convulsive shudder- 
ing.) "1 believe I am going into a fit. My jaws arc 
enough to take down a house at a gulp. I know 
now wlial this is, — it is whalebone. I see the inside 
of the whale's mouth. It lias no teeth; it has a slimy 



BRICK FROM OSWEGO. 63 

look ; but I only get a glimpse of it. Now I see the 
whole animal. What an awful-looking creature ! " 

This, identification of the psychometer with the ani- 
mal psychometrized is at times so complete as to com- 
pel the suspension of the experiment, the influence 
produced sometimes affecting the person for hours. 

EXPERIMENT XV. 

When lecturing in Oswego, N. Y., the high school 
was burnt down, and I picked from its ruins a small 
piece of brick, which I handed to Mrs. Denton for 
examination, she supposing it to be a piece of rock. 

" I feel as if all 'was in commotion, and I was moving 
with tremendous force, and flying into ten thousand 
pieces. It seems as if I could not go with sufficient 
rapidity. 

u It makes me nervous. There is fire about it. It 
is horrible. It produces a terrific feeling. It is a 
piece of brick, I am certain. There is such confusion 
about it I cannot see anything, though I know there is 
fire about it. I feel like leaping clown." 

Some may suppose that some of these remarks were 
in reply to leading questions ; but such was not the 
case. In most instances not a word was said ; and in 
others, the questions asked have been merely in refer- 
ence to what was not fully explained. 

In these last two experiments it will be seen that 
the substance was eventually named ; and, in many 
experiments that we have tried, the substance is often 
correctly named in an instant, though nothing was 
known of it except psychometrically. 

I am not sufficiently acquainted with the history of 



64 - THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

the brick from which the specimen was taken to tell 
whether the account given is correct in every particu- 
lar ; but it must be evident to any one that the feel- 
ings experienced, were much in harmony with what 
the clay generally passes through in being formed into 
brick. It seems a little singular that the heat of the 
fire had not obliterated the sense of the motion to 
which the clay had been previously subjected, but 
many experiments have convinced us that intense heat 
does not destroy even the pictorial impressions that 
have been made upon bodies. 

EXPERIMENT XVI.' 

Many years ago I gave to Mrs. Cridge for examina- 
tion a specimen of the residuum of cannel coal, she 
not seeing the specimen or knowing anything of its 
history. 

" It is coal. I seem to be at the bottom of a mine. 
What a mass of coal ! It seems soft, and the bed is 
about as thick as the height of this room." 

In other experiments, made with metals melted from 
the ores, I have met with similar results. I have not a 
doubt that fossiliferous rocks which have been so highly 
metamorphosed that all organic traces are invisible, 
may be made to yield impressions to the psychometer, 
and a wide and important geological field will be res- 
cued, to the great benefit of future explorers, and the 
perfection of the geologic record. I think it will yet 
bo found that many rocks, regarded as belonging to the 
non-fossiliferous groups, are rich in organic influences. 

EXPERIMENT x\n. 

Fragment of Fossil shell from Carboniferous forma- 
tion, [owa. 



FRAGMENT OF A SHELL. 65 

Mrs. Denton. Neither she nor I knew what it was 
till after the examination. 

" I see something that resembles a star-fish in form, 
though it differs from all living ones that I have seen. 
It is round, and has four long arms or tentacles, and 
shorter ones between. The shorter ones seem to be 
used for locomotion, and the longer ones for prehension. 
The loDg ones are the most pointed j the small ones 
are natter, and more like feet. The mouth is in the 
centre. The long arms are ringed or jointed, so that 
the animal can bend them rapidly, and convey food to 
the mouth. Each long arm has two points at the end. 

"I see another animal moving through the water. 
It has a head nearly as large as the body ; the body 
tapers to the tail. It does not move with fins or true 
feet either, but with a webbed apparatus of some kind, 
apparently between a fin and a foot.' 7 

In this case the shell, or the mollusk originally occu- 
pying it, was not seen at all, but animals that probably 
inhabited the ocean at the same time, and whose influ- 
ence was received by the shell, and preserved for ages 
after it became fossil. 

The star-fish described, resembles the ophiura, or 
serpent-like star-fish, one species of which Professor 
Sedgwick found in the lower Silurian, and other forms 
occur in the more recent formations. The animal seen 
moving through the water was probably one of those 
extinct forms of which the geologist may never know, 
unless it be by the investigations of future psychom- 
eters. 

EXPERIMENT XVITI. 

It was naturally to be expected, if there was any 



66 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

truth in psychometry, that animals would be seen of 
which the geologist knows nothing, for the number 
that the geologist knows is necessarily but a small por- 
tion of the mighty host that has existed. The air 
seems to have had tenants long before geology recog- 
nizes their existence. 

Bone from Tully limestone, near Seneca Lake. 

Mrs. Denton. Specimen unseen, and nothing known 
regarding it. 

" I see a long, smooth beach. It is before me, for I 
seem to be on the water. It extends for a great dis- 
tance, and gently rises as it recedes from the water. 
On that beach are quadrupeds of some kind. One is 
large, heavy, thick-skinned, dark-colored, and thick- 
necked ; the flesh is not fibrous, but soft. Its head is I 
broad, and horns rise up from its nose. I see another 
with a long neck, and a head nearly as large as a 
sheep's, but in appearance like that of a snake, though 
it is a quadruped. Both look reptilian. 

" What a beautiful place this is ! I see a large rock 
completely covered with beautifully green moss. The 
rock is craggy, but all green, and the water at times 
sweeps over it. There are many large objects in the 
air, but they do not seem to be birds." 

Second examination, a month afterward. Specimen 
unrecognized. 

"] sec something that looks Like a fish with spines 
on both sides and nearly round it. It seems short, 
compared with its breadth, for a fish. 

" I sec part of another animal in shallow water, with 
its body hid among the water-weeds, that look like long 
moe , I'ui differ from all I ever saw before. The back 



BONE FROM TULLY LIMESTONE. 67 

of that animal is now visible to me. It lias what looks 
like ears, but I cannot tell whether they are or not. 
They are in the same situation, and lie back on the 
body for a considerable distance. It has sharp-looking 
eyes. There are a great many of these animals, and 
they have a very strange appearance. What I took 
for ears must be folded wings ; I can see between 
them and the head, though they are attached on the 
upper side. The wing is membranous, but I cannot 
describe it, it differs so much from anything I know. 
It is ribbed. The animal looks more like a reptile 
than a fish, though I cannot see the whole distinctly." 

The Tuliy limestone is one of the representatives of 
the Devonian formation, in the State of New York ; it 
lies immediately above the Hamilton group, so widely 
distributed and so well known. That the air was 
occupied by flying animals so early is a very startling 
idea, when we remember that the earliest remains of 
birds that have been found are in the Cretaceous, or 
Chalk formation, certainly formed millions of years after 
the deposition of the Tully limestone. If the air was 
tenanted thus early, we may presume that it was occu- 
pied by successive forms, as the earth was during the 
time intervening between the Devonian and Cretace- 
ous periods, and if so, what an evidence we have of 
the imperfection of the record that geology gives us 
of organic existences. We have but fairly made a 
beginning in the study of ancient life-forms. 

These are the earliest psychometric evidences that 
we have had of the existence of reptiles, though they 
may have lived long prior to this ; for our ignorance 
should never be made the boundary of knowledge. 



68 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

EXPERIMENT XIX. 

Stones falling from the heavens, commonly known as 
meteoric stones, have always excited considerable at- 
tention. " They are," says Humboldt, " the only means 
by which we can be brought in possible contact with 
that which is foreign to our own planet." Some years 
ago, a farmer near Painesville, Ohio, informed me of a 
singular stone on his farm, that looked, as he said, like 
iron ore. On arriving at the spot, I found a dark, 
boulcler-like mass, weighing eighteen hundred and fif- 
teen pounds, covered with a dense crust, from one- 
fourth of an inch to three-eighths of an inch in thick- 
ness. On breaking off portions, its peculiar appearance 
seemed to indicate its meteoric character. I carried off 
small fragments of it, and had some of them tried psy- 
chometrically ; one by Mrs. Foote, who had no concep 
tion of what it was, nor that I had any such specimens 
in my possession. 

" I seem to be travelling away, away, through noth- 
ing, right forward. I see what looks like clouds and 
something sparkling like stars ; but there seems to bo 
a mist between me and that. How curious that is ! it 
carries my eyes right up ; every other specimen has 
taken my eyes right down." 

What could bo more descriptive of the path of an 
aerolite — "away, away, through nothing, right for- 
ward "? In reference to her last statement, she said 
that her eyeballs were rolled upward in opposition to 
her own will. 

Whence come these singular visitors? Are they 
ejected from lunar volcanoes? Are they formed in 
the upper regions of the atmosphere? Are they small 



METEORIC STONE. 69 

planets of a similar class to those circulating between 
the orbits of Mars and Jupiter ? or are they fragments 
of rings once surrounding the earth, as the rings of 
Saturn surround that planet ? I think our experi- 
ments throw some light upon this dark subject, though 
much remains yet to be done. 

EXPERIMENT XX. 

A few days after the last examination, I tried Mrs, 
Foote with another fragment of the supposed meteor- 
ite, under similar conditions. 

" It carries my eyes right up. I see an appearance 
of misty light. I seem to go miles and miles very 
quickly, up and up. Streams of light come from the 
right, a great way off. I see something sparkling, — 
a huge body like a mountain. Between me and that 
is a broad road, that glitters like diamonds. To the 
right of that I see a large round body that I can see 
through, and yet there is substance to it. The sun 
is rising behind that mountain, or a sparkling light is 
shining at a vast distance." 

EXPERIMENT XXI. 

I gave the same specimen to Mrs. Denton, who 
knew nothing of it, nor of the previous examinations. 

" This seems to have been moved. I see it turning 
rapidly on its axis, and little flakes or cinders flying 
from it, which it leaves behind, like a tail. As it 
moves it changes its shape." (Turned the specimen 
over.) " I see what looks like a vein of metal, and 
through it I see what appear like joints ; it is curved. 
From this vein streaks of light pass off like the beard 
I from a head of wheat. 



TO TIIE SOUL OF THINGS. 

"Now I see a temple, built of wood, and in it a rock 
with three points. It is about three feet to the high- 
est point. I am reminded of the Aztec temples." 

Aerolites have been objects of worship in many 
countries. At Emesa, in Syria, the sun was wor- 
shipped under the form of a black stone, reported to 
have fallen from heaven. Pliny mentions a stone 
which fell at Abydos, and was worshipped at that 
place. The holy Kaaba of Mecca, and the great stone 
of the pyramid of Cholula, in. Mexico, have all the 
same history. It is possible that this Painesville aero- 
lite had answered for a god to some race that preceded 
the Indians in Ohio. I had never thought of it previ- 
ious to this examination, but a subsequent one made 
me think it more probable. 

EXPERIMENT XXII. 

Another fragment of the same. 

Mrs. Foote. Conditions as before. 

" I sec thousands of persons moving along. What 
a multitude ! They are marching in rows ; a few are 
standing still. How strange they look ! Beyond them 
there seems to be a city, with trees set out in beauti- 
ful rows. The people are in different companies; some 
look dark and others light. One company is busy 
stooping over, as if they were digging. By the side 
of that company is a ledge of rock, and from that 
a smoke is rising, one cloud after another. The com- 
pany digging are bare-headed; they have dark skins, 
but are □ it negro >s. Now I see a river, and away off 
la ;i range <>l* rooks, covered with moss, ferns, and 
bushes. The rocks taper off in height as I go down 



METEORIC STONE. 71 

the river, and there is a level plain, with woods in the 
distance. Farther down on the right is a city. There 
is something round it, posts and high work, that seem 
made to protect it. I see buildings and people ; the 
buildings are small." (What are they made of?) 
" Don't look like boards at all ; most of them seem 
plastered, or mud-bedaubed. It looks nothing like our 
cities. One building that I see is very large, and a 
great many people are coming and going near there, 
some walking and others riding." (What are they 
riding on?) "Not horses, but animals much smaller; 
I do not know what. Some of the streets are very 
dirty, others clean. From the city I can see out into 
the country ; there is a fine, broad highway." (In re- 
ply to a question,) " The large building is not high, 
but covers considerable ground. The roof goes up to 
a peak, but it looks nothing like our buildings ; it re- 
sembles most a. huge tent. People are riding on 
strange-looking things, drawn by animals that look 
more like sheep than anything else, though they are 
not sheep, for they are larger and of a darker color, 
and hold up their heads like deer. The vehicles look 
i like old boxes mounted on two wheels." 

That a race of comparatively civilized people, living 
i in cities, and employing beasts of burden, ever existed 
\ in Northern Ohio, will seem like a very strange story 
I to some persons ; yet those who are familiar with the 
remains of mounds and fortifications that are scattered 
over the surface of Ohio and the Western States gen- 
erally, may regard it as possible that such a people, as 
Mrs. Foote saw, once lived -in Ohio, who, being startled 
by the descent of an enormous aerolite, had made it 



72 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

an object of religious worship, and it had thus become 
impressed with the scenes described. 

That Indians should have employed animals as beasts 
of burden will appear strange, to those only who are 
unacquainted with their history. When the Spaniards 
first invaded Peru and Chili, they found the llama in 
common use as a beast of burden. Augustin de Zerate, 
in 1544, thus describes the llama in Peru : " In places 
where there is no snow the natives want water, and to 
supply this they fill the skins of sheep with water and 
make other living sheep carry them ; for it must be 
remarked these sheep of Peru are large enough to 
serve as beasts of burden. They can carry about one 
hundred pounds, or more, and the Spaniards used to 
ride them, and they would go four or five leagues a 
day." Captain G. Shelvocke says of them, "" The heads 
of these animals are small in proportion to their bod- 
ies, and are somewhat in shape between the head of 
the horse and that of the sheep. Their necks are 
long. They walk holding up their heads with wonder- 
ful gravity." 

These animals are found both brown and white ; but 
the white are most common. The llama was not, how- 
ever, found by the Spaniards in North America, but it 
is quite possible that at a much earlier period it may 
have been, having perished, as the camel and horse 
had perished, that we know to have existed in North 
America during (lie Tertiary period. 

' EXPERIMENT .Will. 

The first opportunity 1 had of trying what was 
known to bo an aerolite, was in June, 1861. It was a 



METEORIC STONE. 73 

small fragment broken from a specimen in the posses- 
sion of Eev. W. B. Cfistopher, of. Galena, 111. As 
before, the examiner neither saw nor knew anything 
of the specimen, and as we were trying experiments 
with mundane specimens under like conditions, almost 
every day, that could not be distinguished from this 
by touch, there was little probability of the peculiar 
character of this being in any way guessed. The 
specimen was very black, heavy, and somewhat lus- 
trous. From the appearance of it, it probably con- 
sisted of iron and nickel, as meteoric stones gene- 
rally do. 

Mrs. Denton. 

" This seems to have had something done to it. I 
am at the foot of a mountain or high hill. 1 can easily 
see into the inside of it, but with difficulty the out- 
side. I know not how to describe what I see. Here 
are different kinds of metal, and beautiful objects that 
look like gems. I see a great deep chasm; what a ter- 
rible depth ! It must have been dreadfully disturbed. 

" I see a hilly country now. The landscape is beau- 
tiful, delightful. All is at perfect rest, like a calm, sum- 
mer's day. The climate seems to be that of continual 
Spring, without the heat of the tropics, or the cold of 
this climate." 

EXPERIMENT XXIV. 

Ten days afterward I broke a small portion from the 
above specimen, and tried it again as before. 

" I see a mountain of rock, with iron-like network 
all through it. It looks like meteoric iron. (This must 
be a piece of the specimen I tried the other day.) I 
see different colors in the rock that look like the reflec- 

7 



74 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

tion of brilliant gems. It is, however, merely light 
reflected from the iron. 

" There seems to be a great deal of electrical light 
in this. In proportion as I move this specimen from 
my forehead, the mountain increases in visible size. 
It looks ragged. The iron seems quite distinct." 

EXPERIMENT XXV. 

More than a year afterward I gave this specimen to 
Mrs. Foote, she having no idea of its character. She 
held it in her right hand. 

" This is curious. There is nothing at all to be 
seen, and I feel as if I was in the air ; no, not in the 
air, either, but in nothing, — no place. I am utterly 
unable to describe it; it seems up, however. I feel as 
though I was rising, and my eyes are carried up ; but 
I look around in vain ; there is nothing to be seen. 

" I see clouds now, but nothing else. They are so 
close to me that I seem in them. My head, and neck, 
and eyes, are affected. My eyes are carried up, and 
I cannot roll them down. 

" Now the clouds appear lighter and lighter, and 
look as though the sunlight would burst through them. 
As the clouds separate, I can see a star or two, and 
then the moon instead of the sun. The moon seems 
near, and looks coarse and rough, and paler and larger 
in size than I ever saw it before. 

" What a strange feeling comes over me. Seems as 
if I am going right to the moon, and it looks as if it 
was coining on to me. It affects mo terribly." 

She was loo much affected (<> continue the experi- 
ment longer. Had this aerolite, at some period of its 



METEORIC STONE. 75 

history, come within the sphere of the moon's attrac- 
tion, and had its velocity so increased that its in- 
creased centrifugal force had carried it off into space 
again, whence, drawn by the superior attractive force 
of the earth, it had fallen, and its planetary career 
elided forever? Large fire-balls have been seen ap- 
proaching the earth, and then flying off again appa- 
rently in this very manner. 

EXPERIMENT XXVI. 

Another meteoric specimen I obtained of Professor 
McChesney, Chicago. It was a small fragment of 
meteoric iron, and was tried as before. 

Mrs. Denton. 

" I am a very large — a monstrous beast. Others 
are near me that are different. My proportions are 
huge. I seem to be among trees. (I do not believe I 
can get at the true influence of the specimen.) 

"I see a great rock that goes up like a mountain. I 
feel like flying, going, going. What a high rock that 
is ! I am at the foot of it. (I cannot make this agree 
with the other.) There is a slope off to a tract of low 
land in the distance ; it looks marshy. I do not feel 
at home up here ; I am too awkward and clumsy. I 
am rising through the air to the top of the rock. 
(That certainly cannot be right ; the two do not agree 
at all.) Is it a fossil?" (No.) "That rock looks 
like a great broken mass. There are bodies in it that 
shine so as to dazzle my eyes. I cannot tell what 
they are. Now I have that moving feeling again. I 
know what this is now ; it is a piece of an aerolite. 
The slope or inclined plain that I saw is covered with 



76 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

short, green vegetation, differing from all I have ever 
seen. It looks more like moss than grass, though I 
never saw anything covered with moss to such an ex- 
tent. The soil in which it grows seems very thin. 

" That is strange ! I seem to have come to the 
1 jumping-off place.' The sky is overhead, and almost 
under my feet. There is a ledge of bare rock of great 
height, and miles in length, and, looking down at an 
angle of about thirty-five degrees, I see the sky be- 
low." 

This specimen, previous to examination, had been 
wrapped up in a paper with a fragment of the tooth of 
a mastodon, and had apparently imbibed considerable 
of its influence, and to this, in my opinion, strange as 
it may seem, was owing the difficulty that Mrs. D. had 
in obtaining the true influence of the specimen. 

Facts that have come before us during examinations 
since made, have convinced me of what I then sur- 
mised, — the transference, at times, of psychometric 
impressions from one specimen to another. I have 
sometimes thought that where specimens have no strik- 
ing history of their own, they more readily receive 
impressions from neighboring specimens. 

EXPERIMENT XXVIL 

Two months after this, Dr. Bartlett, of Aurora, 111., 
gave me a piece of rock, looking somewhat like a light 
lava, supposed to be of meteoric origin. It was one 
of a number of pieces that were found upon his farm, 
west of Waukegan, 111., covering the ground over an 
oval space, atone end of which, where the fall had ap- 
parently taken place, they had sunk deeply into tho 



METEORIC STONE. 77 

ground. The doctor thinks the aerolite, before its 
fall, must have been as large, at least, as a flour-barrel. 

Mrs. Denton. Conditions as before. 

" Feel as if I were away clown at the bottom of the 
sea. I can see about twenty feet around me ; not very 
distinctly though, for the water is not clear. I hear it 
roaring above me. 

" I am near a cliff that presents a perpendicular 
face to me ; whether it rises above the water or not I 
cannot tell. I occupy the same position with regard 
to the high cliff that I did before with a meteoric 
specimen [Experiment 2G] ; the only difference being 
that I am now in water and do not see that long, green 
slope. I cannot help thinking that this is the same 
place, and this specimen must be meteoric. 

" I am now rising, and everything around me is 
rising at the same time. I have a nervous feeling in 
connection with it, as a person might be supposed to 
have during an earthquake. I rise and sink, rise and 
sink, though never as low as before. I feel as if there 
would be a collision before long. There is a bright 
stream of light now, right before me. What can that 
mean ? It flashes upon my vision every moment, and 
produces great terror. All seems strange and terri- 
ble. There are two streams of bright light, which I 
seem to see through a dense fog. 

" Now I am moving with great velocity and tremen- 
dous force, and then there comes a terrible crash. All is 
confusion. I do not think the concussion took place 
on this earth. I see enormous rocks, like moun- 
tains for size, shattered and piled one on another. I 
have seen nothing like it for magnificence and sub- 



78 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

limity. The rocks are absolutely naked. What a pit ! 
I can see clown a vast distance ; it is horribly deep. 

" Now I am down, and miles of rock are above me. 
This is chaos. I see water pouring down like a torrent 
among the naked rocks." (In reply to a question.) 
"There was heat before the concussion, and heaving, 
rolling, sinking, and rocking before moving through the 
air. 

"I have travelled for many miles over the surface of 
that world, for world it is, with plains and seas. 

"I see a road between two cliffs; it is natural, of 
course, and near it is a low ridge, covered with green 
vegetation ; the soil is exceeding thin." 

Many experiments are yet needed to bring order 
out of this apparent chaos. Our experiments indicate 
that meteorites were once portions of a world, or of 
worlds, shattered by some terrible concussion into 
fragments : that these worlds, or at least one of them, 
had an atmosphere surrounding it, and large bodies of 
water upon it, and vegetation apparently in the condi- 
tion of that of our own planet about the close of the 
Silurian period. 

EXPERIMENT XXVTIL 

In July, 1860, there was an eclipse of the moon, visi- 
ble in Lockport, New York, where we then were. It 
occurred to me that a psychometric examination of 
the moon might be made by the psychomotor Bitting 
where I he lunar light could fall upon the fore) 
The event seemed to justify the conjectui 
though we have tried do oilier experiments in connec- 
tion will) celestial bodies,] have no doubt whatever 
thai the astronomer will eventually derive as mucb as- 



THE MOON. 79 

sistance from psychoinetry as the geologist is likely 
to do. 

Mrs. Denton. 

" I feel a sensation of intense dryness ; every- 
thing is dry, hot, and crisp. What a rough, ragged, 
rocky scene of desolation this is, everywhere. It is 
absolutely terrible ; it affects my whole system. Near 
the edge of the moon which lies toward the sun, I 
see an enormous crater, miles in diameter, and at the 
bottom is a lake of lava ; it is reel, and I see it in slow 
motion. It is remarkable how it keeps its place in the 
basin that encloses it, which seems miles deep, with 
craggy rocks on every side." (" Why does it seem re- 
markable," I said, " that it should keep its place in this 
basin ? I should think it would be the most natural 
thing in the world." She replied, " I am looking up, 
and it seems as if it should pour out."') " I have a 
view of the moon's crust, and compared with the 
earth's it seems a mere shell, enclosing the liquid lava. 

"The electrical condition of the moon seems to me to 
be disturbed by the eclipse, and that disturbance is re- 
flected to the earth and back again; but I cannot prop- 
erly describe it. The disturbance in the electrical 
condition of the moon and earth seems to be recipro- 
cal; a tremulous vibration is produced that seems 
unusual." 

It is a common idea that the moon is cold, and poets 
have long sung of the " cold, inconstant moon ; " but, 
if this psychometric observation may be relied on, it 
is by no means as cold as we may have supposed. A 
body like the moon, destitute of water and an atmos- 
phere, must part with its heat slowly; and it would 



80 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

not be at all surprising if our little attendant planet 
had a very warm heart, after all. 

Sir William Herschel discovered, with his great re- 
flecting telescope, on the dark part of the new moon, 
what he conceived to be the flames of an active vol- 
cano. Since his time, various persons have seen lumi- 
nous spots upon the moon, which favor the idea of 
present igneous activity upon its surface. 

A ccording to Humboldt, " Melloni was fortunate 
enough to observe, by means of a lens of three feet in 
diameter, the most satisfactory indications of an eleva- 
tion of temperature during different changes of the 
moon."* In this case, I suppose the heat would be at- 
tributed to reflection from the sun, but it may be ow- 
ing to heat radiated from the substance of the moon 
itself. 

EXPERIMENT XXIX. 

Some of the bodies, of which the aerolites are frag- 
ments, appear to have resembled the moon in the ab- 
sence of water, for Mrs. Denton remarked on trying 
one specimen subsequently : — 

" This has a great deal of the lunar feeling. I am 
in a region of rocks, all dry. I do not feel the heat of 
the moon, but the dryness is similar, as if all water 
were absent. I sec large masses of rock, with veins of 
iron all through them, forming quite a net-work, with 
here and there large, pure masses of iron." 

EXPERIMENT XXX. 

1 have a small stalactite, which I obtained in a cave, 

about a mile and a half west of Salem, Indiana. I put 
this into the hinds of. Mrs. Cridge, when her eyes were 

imoB, Vol. iv. p. ii.;. 



STALACTITE FROM A CAVE. 81 

closed, and requested her to examine it psychometri- 
cally. She supposed, from the feeling, that it was an 
orthoceras, of which I had many specimens, and which 
it resembles. 

"I see pieces of rock hanging down; they look like 
icicles, as if they had been formed by the droppings 
of the rock. I don't understand it, for the rock seems 
quite hard. I feel cold, and as if water were dropping 
on my head." 

EXPERIMENT XXXI. 

Many months after this I gave the same specimen to 
Mrs. U. Taylor, of Lockport, New York, whom I found 
to be a good natural psychometer. She supposed it 
to be a part of some animal. 

"I go straight along a road; there is water near, 
and a cave, into which I enter. I see two persons go- 
ing in with lights. Stalactites hang from the top all 
over. The two stand looking up. It is so damp and 
cold, it fairly makes me feel chilly. It is a large, 
roundish place. Off at a distance seem places where 
you can go still farther, but I cannot go ; it makes me 
shudder. Now I go to the right ; there is a basin of 
water ; and to the left, room after room. Stalactites 
hang down like curtains, and shine most beautifully.' 7 

The accuracy of 'this description surprised me, ac- 
customed as I was to the faithfulness of the psycho- 
metric pictures. The road to the cave is along the 
western bank of the western branch of Blue. River, 
Indiana ; and out of the cave, which is a " large, round- 
ish place," a small stream issues. When I obtained 
the stalactite, I was in company with another gentle- 
man, and each carried a candle ; but as the cave had 



82 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

been repeatedly visited by parties with candles, I do 
not presume that we were the parties she saw. A 
few hundred yards from the mouth the cave branches. 
There is a basin of water in the body of it, and rooms 
on the left with stalactites, as described. 

ZXPERIMEXT XXXTI. 

I have a small fragment of fibrous gypsum, which 
was obtained in the Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. This 
I gave to Mrs. Denton for examination; she saw it, 
but knew nothing of its history, and supposed it to be 
a piece of asbestos, which it somewhat resembles. 

" You must have had this given to you. The place 
I see does not look like this region. I see a bench 
with rocks upon it resembling this specimen. Back 
of this bench I see a hill with soil and vegetation on 
it. The rocks I saw seem to have been placed there 
by artificial means. Now I see a curved wall arching 
over head ; the rocks that lie around seem to have 
come from an open place near there. Farther on, the 
rocks are perpendicular. 

u I am in a cave that I have seen represented in 
books, I am almost sure. It is very extensive. (I am 
not in good condition for examining, or I could see 
much better.) It has been visited a good deal, for I 
perceive artificial light; that is, light differing from the 
light that i lie rocks give out, by which I see objects 
under ground. There arc parts of the cave, however, 
that have been but little visited. I notice one room 
that has beeD visited a great deal, and visitors must 
have remained and talked in it. 

u At one place I see steps going up, and a rock juts 



MAMMOTH CAVE. 83 

out a long way ; it looks fearful. I judge this place is 
more extensive than it is known to be. All the rooms 
near the entrance seem to have been visited ; this I 
know by the artificial light in them. Where that is, I 
cannot see as distinctly ; it makes itself visible, rather 
than the objects around. » 

" There is a cave below this that is more magnificent 
than the other, much more so. It has not been visited, 
I think. It is surpassingly beautiful. It looks like a 
palace built to embody the idea cf beauty. There is 
something that shines like a sun, raying out light all 
around ; I cannot tell what it is. I cannot think of 
this as a cave ; it is a gorgeous palace. I see a beau- 
tiful curtain-like partition between two rooms, with 
ridges and deep flutings. I notice one long hall with 
two walls, about three feet high, running the whole 
length of it; they look very singular here, for they 
have quite an artificial appearance. What a splendid 
place this would be to live in ; only there is a cool, 
damp feeling about it. I know not how to get out of 
this labyrinth. 

" There is a pit down, down much deeper. It goes 
into another cave by a winding way. What monstrous 
rocks ! The cave near the surface is but a baby com- 
pared with these giant caves below. I thought that 
was a great cave, but what a poor pigmy by the side 
of these ! This cave is partitioned off, in every direc- 
tion, into long, fine rooms, with entrances from one to 
another, generally having high ceilings, though they 
are not all of the same height. There are grand long 
halls opening into the entrance where I came down. 
I wonder if it is not dangerous. If those rocks weru 



84 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

to fall, bow could one get out ? I don't know what it 
means, but I bave a sense of animal influence. All at 
once I am on the surface." 

I then informed her that the specimen was from the 
Mammoth Cave. She said, "Is there water in the 
Mammoth Cave*? for I saw streams of water in it, but 
did not notice them particularly, there was so much 
else to see." 

I have never visited the Mammoth Cave ; but those 
who have will, I think, acknowledge the accuracy of 
the descriptions of the known parts of the cave. The 
truth of the statements with regard to the unknown 
portions future explorers may yet determine. The 
animal influence felt was probably owing to the fossils 
contained in the Mountain Limestone, in which the 
Mammoth Cave has been hollowed out, by the action 
of underground streams for ages. 

One thing the reader will notice in this, as well as 
in some other examinations, that the psychometer 
seemed to be at the spot and travelling over the 
ground. When our experiments first commenced, pic- 
tures connected with the history of the specimen 
passed before the gaze of the psychometer, like a 
panoramic view, she being a mere passive spectator. 
Alter some time these pictures could be to a certain 
cxteirt controlled, their progress arrested or hurried 
at will, till at length the psychometer seemed to travel 
epol where the specimen came from, and de- 
it as a Living person would who beheld it with 
the natural eye. Not only was this done with regard 
to present time, but with regard to all past time. All 
past to the psychome I to become present; 



MAMMOTH CAVE. 85 

all that had been was found to exist, and could be 
examined as thoroughly, almost, as the present around 
us. 

It would seem that rays of light are passing from 
all objects continually, which are invisible to the eye, 
as a general rule, and can pass readily through some 
substances, if not all, which are opaque to ordinary 
light. These rays seem to be able to pass at once to 
the brain of sensitive persons and give the sensation 
of vision, without the intervention of the eye as an 
organ. Ordinary light is too coarse for such a refined 
organ as the brain to receive without the intervention 
of another organ, which receives it and then intro- 
duces it to the brain. But for this refined light the 
brain needs no such go-between, but it passes at once 
through the portals and is admitted into the inner 
chamber of the soul. Some of the lower animals 
seem to perceive objects, although they are totally 
blind, and, in some cases, do not even- possess the vis- 
ual organs. We find in most large caves blind ani- 
mals, such as beetles, millipeds, crawfish, etc. ; but 
although they possess none of the ordinary power of 
vision, they yet move away from the light of the ex- 
plorer's torch, just as similar animals out of doors 
when they see a coming individual. Eyes are unne- 
cessary to these cave tenants, and in process of time 
they are withdrawn ; but they possess what answers 
the purpose to them in their underground existence 
equally as well ; otherwise they would certainly cease 
to exist. 

In the fresh-water polyp the whole body is sensitive 
•to the influence of light, for it turns to it; and that 



86 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

this is owing to the sensitiveness of the whole body, 
is evident from the fact that, if cut in two, both parts 
equally seek the light. 

" The monas sulphur aria, stentor niger, and the 
actiniai, seek the light, but change their position if 
exposed to the full glare of the sun, and sink beneath 
the surface, before any part of their bodies comes in 
contact with the atmosphere. Veretillum cynomorium 
(a species of zoophyte) seeks the darkest spots and 
folds itself together if brought within the influence of 
the light. In all these animals the power of sight, or 
rather the sense of perception, is spread over the whole 
surface of the body."* 

Bats, that spend their lives in twilight or darkness, 
appear to possess this interior vision to a wonderful ex- 
tent. Experiments made by Spallanzani, and repeated 
by eminent philosophic naturalists, demonstrate that 
the bat, when blinded, regulates its motions in the 
same manner as when it has full possession of its eyes. 
" Completely blinded bats were not in the slightest de- 
gree obstructed in their motions. They flew about by 
night or by day with their wonted ease and rapidity, 
avoiding all obstacles which lay, or were intentionally 
placed in their way, as dextrously as if in full posses- 
sion of their sight. They turned round at the right 
time when they approached a wall, rested in a conven- 
ient situation when fatigued, and struck against noth- 
ing. The experiments were multiplied and varied in 
the. most ingenious manner. A room was filled with 
thin twigs; in another, silken threads were suspended 
from (he roof, and preserved in (lie same position and 

Thompson's Passions pf Animals. 



BLIND BATS. 87 

at the same distance from each other by means of 
small weights attached to them. The bat, though de- 
prived of its eyes, flew through the intervals of these 
threads, as well as of the twigs, without touching 
them ; and when the intervals were too small, it drew 
its wings more closely together. In another room a 
net was placed, having occasional irregular spaces for 
the bat to fly through, the net being so arranged as to 
form a small labyrinth. But the blind bat was not to 
be deceived. In proportion as the difficulties were in- 
creased, the dexterity of the animal was augmented. 
When it flew over the upper extremity of the net and 
seemed imprisoned between it and the wall, it was fre- 
quently observed to make its escape most dextrously. 
When fatigued by its high flights, it still flew rapidly 
along the ground, among tables, chairs, and sofas ; yet 
avoided touching anything with its wings. Even in 
the open air its flight was as prompt, easy, and secure 
as in close rooms ; and in both situations, altogether 
similar to that of its associates who had the use of 
their eyes." * 

Any animal living in darkness during a continued 
existence, would, in my opinion, receive visual impres- 
sions in the same way ; still more, animals whose an- 
cestors had existed in a similar manner for ages, the 
power increasing with continued use, as transmitted 
for many generations. 

It is not surprising that human beings should possess 
a power which is thus shared in by many animals, some 
of which are quite low in the scale of existence, 

Harriet Martineau tells us of an old lady who had 

* Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, Vol. IV., p. 293. 



88 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

been blind from her birth, and yet saw in her sleep ; 
and, when in her walking state, described the color of 
the clothing of individuals correctly. 

Most blind persons exhibit such phenomena to a 
greater or less extent, according to the sensitiveness 
of the individual and the length of time during which 
the power has been cultivated. The case of the blind 
Yorkshire surveyor is familiar to most persons, and, 
in his case, the possession of vision, without the use 
of eyes, seems most evident. 

Somnambulists who read and write with eyes closed, 
and sometimes bandaged, who in dark nights walk 
along the roofs of buildings and narrow walls, and per- 
form various feats which other individuals could only 
do in the light of day, bear evidence to the possession 
of this faculty, that we are now considering, in man. 
For this subtle light to which I have referred is never 
obscured ; it is always day with it, and, to those who 
perceive by its instrumentality, the darkest midnight 
is light and clear as the sunniest noon. 

Clairvoyance is but the exercise of the same power 
by an individual in a somewhat different condition. If 
this subtle light can pass through a brick wall, the 
brick wall can be as readily seen through, by the per- 
son who sees by its instrumentality, as we can see 
through a pane of glass. To the clairvoyant, therefore, 
all things are transparent as air, because they are per- 
vious to the light by which he sees; the rays proceed- 
ing from obj ing directly through the transpa- 
!.uli -transparent to this light — to the brain. 

Pacts which philosophers have sneered at, and phe- 
nomena which they have denied, will eventually be 



MOUNT OF OLIVES. 89 

accepted, and found to be in harmony with refined 
forces of matter with which they are as yet unac- 
quainted. 

I have recently become acquainted with Mrs. Lu- 
cielle do Yiel, of Pultneyville, Wayne Co., N. Y., a 
. lady who, on examining a specimen psychometrically, 
not only goes to the spot from which the specimen was 
obtained, but has the sensation of travelling while doing 
so, and frequently sees towns, ships, rivers, seas, etc., as 
she passes along to her destination. She- informs me 
that she has seen objects with her eyes closed, from 
infancy, and frequently heard sounds that were inau- 
dible to all but herself. After picking berries or gath- 
ing chestnuts, on lying down to sleep, she saw them in 
great abundance, and often wished she could have the 
privilege of gathering what was so plainly visible. 
When young, she frequently told her friends what she 
saw; but, being laughed at and called visionary, she 
ceased to be communicative in reference to these vis- 
ions. Previous to my trying her with the following 
specimens, she had never done anything of the kind, 
nor heard of its being done. I simply requested her 
to tell me what she saw and felt. The following ex- 
periments were made, she having no knowledge what- 
ever of the specimen previous to its examination. She 
is more familiar with the French language than with 
English, and hence had more difficulty than another 
would have had in describing what appeared to her. 

After trying her with two specimens of but ordinary 
interest, I gave her the specimen of hornstone brought 
from the Mount of Olives, an examination of which is 
recorded in experiment Q6. 



90 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

EXPERIMENT XXXIU. 

" I am going back, back, — over the water I glide 
along, but I see no vessels. Now, I am on shore ; and 
see stones and rocky hills. There are large and small 
stones scattered all around, with moss among them. It 
is too stony for trees. What a long way off this is ! 
There is water near where I am now, and a little grass, 
and small bushes. I see a basin of water ; it is a 
lake, I judge. 

" There does not seem to be many people. The land 
is so poor, I judge, they could not raise enough to eat. 
I see a forest a long way off. 

" I see an ancient place now ; how old-fashioned it 
is ! Old houses almost down ; arched gates and win- 
dows ; how curious they look ! Now I see people. 
Is that Spain?' 7 (^o.) " There is something grow- 
ing on that rocky mountain ; a few trees. They are 
not very tall, but thick and bushy. I should judge 
they were fig trees ; but the leaves look like the olive. 

" I have seen people like these ; but I cannot tell 
where. The women wear turbans and pantaloons ; and 
men and women are much alike. I see cattle, but they 
look different from ours. Farther back I see horses, 
sheep, and goats. 

"I see a great palace. It is very beautiful. It 
looks like a Roman Catholic church. That is what it 
is. I see images, the cross, candlesticks, and an image 
of the Virgin. It is a very large place. Women are 
kneeling, and men walking on their tip-toes, a if 
they were afraid of disturbing something. Back of that 
palace I see a high mountain that lies to the north, I 
judge. Now I sec ruins, — large stones lying round 



MOUNT OF OLIVES. 91 

that have fallen down. Some are in heaps, and some 
are scattered ; they seem too large for men ever to 
handle." 

After supper, a second examination was made of the 
same specimen. 

" It seems just as it did before. I'm going over the 
water again. I guess I'm crossing the Red Sea, it 
looks so red and dark. I see no vessel. Now I'm on 
shore. It is dreadful far. I see rocky little hills, 
heaps of stones, and large, flat stones lying by the 
wayside. The roads are narrow and crooked ; they 
look like paths. I notice a large hill ; it is all stone 
though, except a few small trees, which can hardly 
find root. 

" Now I see a city, with high stone walls and large 
iron gates. The wall is thick and high. Two men 
are watching at the gate ; they look like Jews. I 
wonder if they will let me in. Now I come to that 
temple and go in again. There is the crucifix at the 
altar, the images, and the women praying. It is a 
splendid place. Now I see another nice temple, not 
so large as the first. There are Greek letters on the 
outside ; I cannot read them. I see many houses ; 
they look curious ; some are in ruins, and some are 
nice-looking places. 

" I am on a mountain now ; and there is another 
mountain on the opposite side, with olive trees and fig 
trees all the way. I see a garden, and water in a kind 
of basin. I have seen a description of this place, I 
know. Is not this Jerusalem ? The mountain I stood 
on was Mount Mori ah, and that opposite the Mount of 
Olives." 



92 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

Who does not see that what was stated is true of 
Jerusalem and its vicinity, and of no other place ? I 
found, on visiting her house subsequently, a work on 
Palestine, by means of which she had become familiar 
with Jerusalem and its vicinity, and hence the readi- 
ness with which she identified what she saw, which, at 
first, very much surprised me. 

EXPERIMENT XXXIV. 

Fibrous gypsum, Mammoth Cave. 

"I am travelling south now. I see the soldiers' 
camp and tents. There are mountains around there, 
back and back. I see a cave ; it looks white, like 
marble. What curious things on shelves, or what 
look like shelves, — vases, cups, candles, and candle- 
sticks, all in stone. There is a natural seat all round 
there. 

" I see a spring ; how clear the water is. There arc 
fine statues, horses, camels, everything one can think 
of, almost, in stone. 

" What a pretty place this is ; it glitters like gold. 
What makes it shine so? Now I sec water falling in- 
to a kind of basin down there. I see the appearance 
of curtains. That water pours into another basin be- 
low again." 

This specimen is the one that was the subject of 
Experiment 32, and was obtained from the Mammoth 
)!ii" years ago, at a time when there were no 
camps or soldiers in i irhood; so (hat it ap- 

law the locality at the very time the exam- 
ination was made, a time when, as 1 afterward learned, 
were in i\\c immediate vicinity. 



A BLACK PEARL. 93 



EXPERIMENT XXXV. 



I have a small black pearl, given me by Captain Lo- 
per, who brought it from the Gulf of California. This 
I gave to Mrs. do Viel for examination, who did not 
see it, but supposed, as she afterward told me, that it 
was a small bean, which in shape it much resembles. 

" 1 am travelling a long way again ; I think south- 
east. I see a man on his knees, digging and scraping 
with his hands. He has something like a basket on a 
stick, which he puts into the water and dips out, and 
then scrapes with his hands in the dirt. It is not 
much inhabited here. It is either between points or 
islands, where this man is at work getting things." 
(What is he getting ?) " Stones, or something valua- 
ble, for he is very choice of them, selecting them with 
great care. (Oh, but it is a long way from here !) 
As near as I can see, he is getting pearls. He scrapes 
into this vessel, full of holes ; the water runs through, 
and he selects out of what remains at the bottom. 
They may be diamonds for aught that I know ; they 
shine very bright. He puts them into a little bag, af- 
ter he picks them out. 

" Back from him there is a large building, but it 
looks as if no one lived there. I see goats ; they are 
the only animals that I can find. I see trees and 
vines. That sea-shore is splendid. What clean, nice 
sand ! " 

In this experiment she apparently travels to the 
spot, but whether she saw what was occurring at the 
time, or what had occurred at the time the pearl un- 
der examination was gathered, it is impossible to say. 
The lower part of the Gulf of California is the place 



94 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

where pearls are obtained, and the land in that neigh- 
borhood is very sparsely populated, or, as she described 
it, "" not much inhabited,' 7 

EXPERIMENT XXXVI. 

A small fragment of Table Hock, Niagara. 

" I am in a place where I see stony land. I trav- 
elled west from here. I see a stony mountain ahead 
of me. This came from a rock at tha.t mountain. It 
is settled all around there, and there are forests back 
from the villages. Some parts of the village look well, 
but it is nothing particular as a whole. The people I 
see look like our people. I see several places where 
water runs down the side of the mountain. I see some- 
thing clear and white in the rocks; it looks like silver." 
(Look around, down below.) "I see two or three huts 
and arbors, and some rabbits. There is a cave that 
goes under that mountain. I am curious to see it. I 
sec bones on the ground that look like human, and a 
beast's head of some kind." (Turned the specimen 
over.) 

" Now I see a kind of smoke, — it may be a cloud of 
some kind; it goes right up. It is more toward the 
middle than the cave. I see no fire, — once in awhile 
a little spark. That smoke does not spread; it goes 
straight up. 

" I am looking down now in the mountain. It is a 
deep hole. There is somctliin,^ down there boiling up, 
boiling up all the time,.and the smoke comes from- 
that, [s that a hot spring?" (No.) " What makes it 

boil so? II makes just such a noise as the lake; (loos. 
ITow ii roars I II is louder than the lake. It sounds 



TABLE ROCK, NIAGARA. 95 

just like a torrent." (Go across to the mountain on 
the other side.) " That is a small one, not so high as 
the one I was on before. Can that be a volcano ? I 
hear it roar off here. There are no inhabitants here. 
It is very rough. There is a river that goes right 
round, — yes, all the way. It has a very pretty shore, 
but it is not very deep. There are two or three small 
villages round there. The people seem to fish a good 
deal. 

" That river has a very rapid current ; it looks stony 
in places, and the water boils right up. What makes 
it smoke so ? It runs right under that big mountain. 
There is a place under the mountain where it runs 
just as it does above, and boils right up ; that is what 
makes the smoke. On the other side the water de- 
scends into a deep hole.; it seems like a whirlpool 
down there. Under that water is a place where 1 can 
go. The stones are flat under there. The water 
pours over my head. There is an arch of stone over 
me. The stone is white in places. It is right under 
the mountain where I see this. I can go a long way 
under that arch, and as far as I go the water is. It 
seems as if the water was engulfed as fast as it fell. 
I wonder where it comes from? The water makes 
that smoke ; it looks like a rain-cloud or mist. It rises 
right up through that hole in the mountain, and when 
the sun shines it sparkles, and that is what I took for 
sparks. 

" I am on top of the mountain again, and looking 
over the water. There is a great, big cataract. The 
water goes down with tremendous force, and that 
makes it go up like smoke. What monstrous stones 



96 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

there are near that cataract, — many as big as this 
house. That is a terrible -whirlpool ; the water goes 
round like a wheel. It is so strong it carries the fish 
up with it. Near the cataract is a large, square face 
of stone, and that is what the water falls over. That 
stone conies over, something like a piazza, and the wa- 
ter fails over it. There is quite a space behind the 
water; it looks like a long tunnel. What a tremen- 
dous body of water ! What force ! I never saw any 
cataract like this before." 

She travelled in the right direction, and seemed to 
be at the spot in a few moments ; but her vision seems 
to have been very much circumscribed, so that she 
could only describe what was in the immediate vicin- 
ity of where she seemed to be. She had never been 
at Niagara personally, or she would doubtless have 
recognized the spot. Any one who has been there, 
must see the exceeding accuracy of her description, 
which evidently none but an eye-witness could give. 
The white substance she saw in the rocks on two occa- 
sions is a very pure variety of gypsum, as white as 
chalk, which is worked up by persons at the Falls into 
ornaments and sold to visitors. 

On crossing the mountain she seems to have gone 
over to Goat Island, for she sees the river " goes right 
round," and from there, right under the cataract itself, 
where there is an arch of stone above, and the water 
pours righl over her head. She then passes to the 
Canadian side, and sees the cataract in its grandeur, 
which Bhe Beems to have been unable fco do before, 
and beholds, with keener vision than ordinary visitors, 
that long tunnel, as she likens it to, which all visitors 



LEAD MINE, GALENA. 97 

know exists between the descending sheet an! the 
wall of rock behind it, along which many persons ven- 
ture daily, accompanied by guides. 

EXPERIMENT XXXVTI. 

Sulphnret of iron from the Marsden lead, west of 
Galena, 111. (Thought it was a stone.) 

"I am going over Niagara River. I see the cataract 
and suspension bridge. I am travelling west. I see 
a place dug out of the earth where this came from. I 
see something there that looks whiter than copper, 
and a good many people are digging it. It is a good 
way off west. Back of here there is a town or city, 
and a body of water and vessels. " (The Mississippi is 
about three miles west of there, and Dubuque, Iowa, 
perhaps seven or eight miles.) "I see horses and 
wagons that carry the stuff away. 

"Now I see a place where they melt- it; there is a 
great furnace. It looks like lead. There are many 
people at work ; I never saw anything like it before. 

" They have axes under ground there for cutting it 
out. I see them pick out white stones and lay to one 
side. 

" Now I see them shipping it in a vessel — they un- 
load it from wagons — it is in bars. 

" They have dug quite deep, and there are two or 
three ladders in different holes. As they go down they 
dig away under and very wide — thirty or forty feet, I 
should think. They have lights down there, and very 
^ng ladders to go up and down. The men are liack- 
ng into the wall ; they are almost as black as negroes. 
They haul the stuff out in buckets from one hole to 



98 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

another. It is very damp and cold in there. How 
the wall shines ! There is very clear water there." 

The accuracy of this whole description is marvel- 
lous. The Marsden lead is the richest known in the 
neighborhood of Galena, and is worked about five 
miles west of that city. The mine is the deepest in 
that region; and the inflow of water, which is very 
pure, is so great, that an engine is kept constantly 
employed in pumping it out. There are several holes, 
as she stated, furnished with ladders ; and in the prin- 
cipal one they have dug " away under," for the roof 
of the mine dips at an angle of about fifty or fifty-five 
degrees. The wall glistens much more than is com- 
mon in lead mines, on account of the great abundance 
of crystallized sulphuret of iron. 

When at the mines she seems to have Come into 
rapport with the lines of travel to and from it ; along 
one she goes to the smelting furnace, and from there 
to Galena, where the lead is shipped on board vessels, 
in bars, as she states, and then returns on the other 
again to the mines, to continue her explorations. 

The only statement that she made in reference to it 
that is open to criticism is the one in which she says, 
" They haul the stuff out in buckets from one hole to 
another." If my remembrance of it is accurate, the 
ore is drawn up in buckets by (lie steam-engine that 
pumps the water out, by a very crooked passage, it is 
true, and this may have led her to describe it as going 
from one hole to another. 

EXPERIMENT XX.XVIII. 

Piece of chamois horn, from Switzerland. It was but 
a small fragment, and no person by feeling could hav| 



CHAMOIS HORN, SWITZERLAND. 99 

imagined its character ; and as she did not see it, evi- 
dently the remarkable power that she possesses cculd 
alone give her the clue to the surroundings of the ani- 
mal of which it was once a part. 

"I am travelling south-east now, I think. I pass 
over many places that I have done before. I see 
many soldiers and cannon, but I go over them. -Now 
I am on the sea-coast, and here are all kinds of shells. 

"I go farther back into the wilderness. I see prairies 
and dark-colored hills. I go farther back to the moun- 
tain land. There are large mountains ; I see one higher 
than any I ever saw before. I see a splendid city a 
little way off. 

" I see little caves here and there that seem to have 
been dug for shelter. The rocks are dark, and so is 
the soil. I see goats or deer climbing up. There are 
numbers of animals running round me, some goats and 
some deer. The horns of the goats arch over back, 
but the deer's horns are bushy. Streams run down 
from the mountain-side and make gullies ; the water is 
clear, and they look beautiful. 

" I went into one of those caves ; they are dens for 
wild animals. Nuts grow on that mountain — some 
look like hazels — they are not ripe. They are very 
sour — I tasted them; they make the water run out 
of my mouth. 

"It is a splendid country all round here. I'll go 
into that city and see how it looks. Some buildings 
are of white marble, and others of dark stone. The 
people are swarthy, but they dress a good deal like 
our people. They have a stern look. I see a Roman 
Catholic church; there is a cross on the top. I see 



10 J THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

other churches. There are many mules in that coun- 
try — more than horses. I can see the whole city. 
On the other side is a body of water, and a very ex- 
tensive wilderness in the distance. 7 ' 

Here we have the mountainous region of the Alps, 
where the chamois dwells, the caves in which wild 
animals shelter, the animals themselves, with their 
horns arching back, — though she supposed them to be 
a peculiar kind of goat, — and, generally, what we 
should behold if visiting the region in proper person. 

EXPERIMENT XXXIX. 

Conglomerate from Eagle Eiver, near where it emp- 
ties into Lake Superior. 

" I am going west of here. I pass over Niagara, 
where I was before. I pass rocks and over woods and 
waters, and now I am close by a lake and a wilderness. 
That is a pretty shore. It is a nice place all around — 
quite a wilderness back. I see a creek that runs 
through the wilderness and empties into the lake. It 
makes quite a ripple over the stones as it goes down. 
Those are beautiful trees — oak, I think, white oak. I 
am close to the edge of the creek, and but a little 
way from the lake. 

"A little way back there arc inhabitants. I see 
firms, and log houses, and saw-mills. They take wood 
to the lake. (That creek is narrow.) They are not 
all Yankees there. I sec different kinds of people — 
some French. That is a great place for timber. That 
water Is deep enough for vessels to come in. I see 
one ; 'i t!i ( > wharf now taking in wood." 

This description of the place from which I obtained 



GLACIER-SCRATCHED PEBBLE. 101 

the specimen is correct, I believe, in nearly every par- 
ticular. I obtained it from the rocky bank of Eagle 
River, about 300 yards back from Lake Superior, and 
within the bounds of Eagle River village, where the 
water "makes quite a ripple over the stones as it 
goes." The creek runs through a wilderness and emp- 
ties into the lake, which has at that point a beautiful 
pebbly shore. There is a wharf near the place, and 
vessels call, in going up and coming down the lake. I 
am not certain that she is correct about the kind of 
trees in the neighborhood, which, I think, are princi- 
pally small pines. 

EXPERIMENT XL. 

Glacier-scratched pebble, Palmyra, New York. 
' " This draws me down. There are many stones 
where this came from ; I see numbers of them. It did 
not come very far. You got this close by, a little 
south of here ; not very far from Pultneyville. You 
did not pick it up for its beauty, but to see if any one 
could tell where it came from. There is a bed of this 
stone where it came from, — different layers, one above 
another. I see a village ; there is nothing remarkable 
about it." 

These examinations were made at Pultneyville, on 
the shore of Lake Ontario ; and Palmyra, where I ob- 
tained the specimen, is sixteen miles south of Pultney- 
ville. She had never been at Palmyra, and hence did 
not recognize the place, which she appears to have 
seen psychometrically. 

Some persons may think that out of a multitude of 
examinations I have chosen just the few that had in 



102 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

tlieni something remarkable, but this is not the case. 
My time was limited, and Mrs. do ViePs family duties 
prevented her trying as many experiments as she oth- 
erwise would. She examined, in all, thirteen speci- 
mens, and out of the thirteen I have presented eight. 
The rest were probably just as correct, but I have not 
yet been able to verify them as fully as I could wish. 

This lady had no idea that she possessed any such 
power, till she tried a specimen that I gave her, and 
she expressed the greatest delight at the wonderful 
things that she was thus enabled to see. She seemed 
less fatigued by it than any psychometer that I ever 
saw, owing probably to her robust physical constitution. 

Of what great utility this department of psychome- 
try may become ! All drift may be tracked by the fu- 
ture geologist to the place of its dispersion ; and 
where that drift contains portions of the precious 
metals, the vein from which they were borne may 
readily be discovered. A simple, cheap and efficient 
telegraph line may be established between the most 
distant places on the earth, that may be worked as 
rapidly as a person can read. In short, the uses of this 
power are innumerable, and such as only the great fu- 
ture can develop. 

I am strongly inclined to believe that if we detach 
a rock from its parent bed, wherever it may be car- 
ried, there is ;i line of connectioD extending from that 
rock i<> the bed from which it was derived, and that 
along that line something (call it soul, spirit, or mind, 
1 know not what term would be most appropriate) 
I from the psychometer in the place, and sees ob- 

iit exist. When a psychometer 



RAVINE NEAR LOCKPORT, N. T. 103 

examines a specimen of rock from a building, some- 
times the quarry is first visited where the rock was 
obtained, and then the building ; and at other times 
the building is first visited, and then the quarry. 

If psychometers only wandered over' places as they 
exist at the present, time, which appears to be the case 
with Mrs. do Yiel, such an explanation would be quite 
sufficient for all cases ; but when they wander, as 
they appear to do, through the streets of cities, which 
they find in their prime, though they have been but 
heaps of ruins for centuries, when they skim over 
wide continents, containing strange mountain chains 
and long-perished rivers ; roam through trackless for- 
ests alive with extinct mammals, and visit the ocean- 
caves of early geologic periods, very different must 
be the explanation of this. Can it be that all the Si- 
lurian period — its thermal oceans, its shelly beaches, 
its foggy skies, all its tenants of water and rock, and 
the diversified surface and changing conditions of the 
globe and its inhabitants during its vast continuance 
— is locked up in the fragment of limestone, whose 
interior is viewed by the psychometer ? I am some- 
times inclined to think that the universe is contained 
in every pebble, and it only needs the all-compelling 
soul to call it forth. Time will explain all. 

EXPERIMENT XLL 

There is a remarkable gulf, north of the town of 
Lockport, New York, evidently produced by a branch 
of the Niagara river, which, at some distant period, 
flowed over the ridge there, and cut its way back for 
more than a mile. At the present tim6. there is a small 



104 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

creek flowing through it, which empties into Lake On- 
tario a few miles below. There is a mineral spring at 
the bottom of the gulf, and some one had dug out the 
rock in its neighborhood in order to deepen it. I car- 
ried away a block of it to Lockport, and broke out 
from the centre of it a small piece, which, up to that 
time, had never seen the light. I wrapped it in two 
thicknesses of paper, and then presented it to Mrs. 
Taylor for examination, she having at the time, I am 
positive, no knowledge of it whatever. She was si- 
lent for some time, but at length said : — 

" I find great difficulty in fixing my mind upon it. 
^am on the edge of a cliff; below me there is a deep 
ravine, with a little stream running through it, off to 
the lake. I go across a rocky, uneven piece of 
ground, and see trees and grass ; trees grow on the 
side of the ravine. I see you hammering among the 
rocks." 

The description is accurate in every particular. 
Is a man exaggerating when he says the paving-stones 
can see, and tell what they see ? Images of external 
objects in their vicinity are impressed even upon their 
interiors ; images that will continue as long as the 
stones themselves endure. 

EXPERIMENT XUL 

When seeking for fossils in the bed of the Wyan- 
dotte River in Kansas, some years ago, I found a piece 
of petrified bone, apparently a portion of the leg-bone 
as mamma] ; and near it a piece of the 
enamel of a tooth, looking somewhat like the side of a 
mastodon's tooth. This was examined by Mrs. Den- 



ENAMEL OF A TOOTH. 105 

ton, she as usual neither seeing it nor knowing any- 
' thing of its supposed character. 

" I see a very large and singular-looking animal, 
great beyond anything that I ever conceived a quad- 
ruped to be. Its huge legs are wide apart ; the hind 
legs considerably larger than the fore legs. The head 
is large, and must be very heavy ; it moves from side 
to side. There is a kind of marsh where plants grow, 
and there it. goes to eat. 

" It seems as if I could describe the whole of the 
internal organs of the animal. The bones are large, 
and the marrow seems monstrous. The skin is very 
thick. The nose comes down a long way and widens 
out, and the animal seems to have had the power of 
lengthening its neck at will." 

EXPERIMENT XLITT. 

The fragment of tooth was also examined by Mrs. 
Cridge, under like conditions. I had carefully kept 
both specimens from observation previous to these ex- 
periments, in order to have a satisfactory result. 

" I can see many animals that are large, but I see 
them too indistinctly to describe them. One is a large 
animal with horns, which lie back toward the shoulder. 
It has a very long head, and is about the size of a 
horse, but differs from all animals that I have seen. 

" A river appears before me, and a swamp, and a 
thicket connecting the swamp and river. There is 
one very large animal near there, a walking stack of 
flesh. What curious legs ! They are spread out and 
look very heavy, but look short compared with the 
size of the animal ; the ankle joint seems to come right 



106 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

down on the ground. It has a very long neck. The 
fore feet are unlike the hind feet. It eats branches of 
trees. It has the power of drawing in and sending 
out its neck. The head seems small compared with 
the size of the body." (In reply to a question:) "I 
think it has a trunk, but it is shorter than an ele- 
phant's ; it seems to smell by it. It is very wide at the 
end and open. There ! I see the animal roll it over 
and over, and place it on the top of the head. 

" I see another animal, light-colored and scaly, cov- 
ered with a suit of armor ; it has quite a long tail. It 
has a long head, and horns laid back upon it. The 
back is covered with regular, sharp protuberances ; 
underneath it is of a brown color. It is quite harm- 
less, living upon herbs. I can see it nibbling. Its 
teeth seem to be quite sharp." 

It appears evident that both saw the same animal, 
though the descriptions differ somewhat. One sees a 
marsh where plants grow; the other sees a swamp and 
a thicket. Both see a very large quadruped; both 
notice that its legs are wide apart, though they speak 
of it in somewhat different language, and both observe 
a difference between its fore and hind feet. One sees 
that it possesses a trunk, which the other does not 
appear to observe until the question is asked whether 
it has or not ; but both state that it is wide at the end, 
which is very different, as every one knows*, from the 
shape of the elephant's proboscis. Let it be remember- 
ed, that neither person knew that the specimen exam- 
ined was a part of any animal, and that these remarka- 
ble coincidences were brought out, not by hints given 
or leading que;! ions asked, but by presenting the 



RAIN-PRINTS ON SANDSTONE. 107 

specimen, which certainly could convey no idea to 
ordinary touch of its nature, and then leaving all to be 
educed by its pyschonietric examination alone. 

From pyschometric examinations, made at various 
times, I believe that many huge animals existed in 
North America during the Tertiary period, allied to 
the mastodon and megatherium, and some that appear 
to have been links between the pachydermata and 
edentata ; the descriptions given agreeing partly with 
the one and partly with the other. 

From the appearance of the cervical vertebras, in the 
engraving of the skeleton of the megatherium, given 
in Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise on Geology, 
it seems very probable that it had the power of pro- 
truding the head, thus enabling it to reach distant 
branches without moving its ponderous body. The 
vertebras of the neck seem to be concave on their 
upper surfaces, and convex on their lower, fitting into 
each other, as one cup of a set fits into another; so 
that they could be removed a considerable distance 
apart without danger of dislocation. 

The animal seen encased in armor was probably 
allied to the Armadillo family, many of which, of 
gigantic size, with shells like turtles, existed on the 
American continent during the Tertiary period. 

EXPERIMENT XLIV. 

At Chagrin Falls, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, there is, in 
a sandstone quarry, a layer about three inches thick, 
on which are found, over the whole surface, the im- 
pression of rain-drops ; corresponding casts of them 
being found on the under surface of the overlying 



108 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

layer. Occasionally, fossil fish with heterocercal tails 
have been found in the same layer as the rain-drops. 
The rock is a member of the Devonian formation. 
Mrs. Denton, without seeing it or knowing anything 
regarding it, placed a small piece of one of the slabs, 
containing the impressions of rain-drops, upon her 
forehead, and said : — 

"I see a zigzag flash of lightning; it divided before 
it reached the earth. Now I am in a shower, and feel 
as if drenched by rain. This must be the impression 
of rain-drops." 

How strange that the electric flash which darted to 
the earth millions of years ago, should still be visible, 
and the rain that followed it still be felt ! 

EXPERIMENT XLV. 

When travelling through Texas, several years ago, I 
found in Henderson County a creek, the bed of which 
contained innumerable fragments of silicified wood, 
some of them of rare beauty ; and in the vicinity, I 
saw bodies of trees, two and three feet in diameter, 
and many feet in length, changed into solid flint. One 
of the small pieces that I brought home with me, was 
the subject of this experiment, which was made as 
before. 

" 1 see water and trees, some standing and others 
lying. The water is peculiar ; it has some property in 
it that produces ;i feeling of incrustation, on putting the 
hands into ii. II is very warm; a, hot steam rises from 
it. It has ;i saltish taste, hut there seems to be some 
alkali in il. 1 1 looks clear, except on the top, where 
a kin] of crust floats upon the surface. The water 



FOSSIL WOOD FROM TEXAS. 109 

flows over a small cascade into a lake below. Moving 
my position, I now see trees, tall, large and majestic, 
and the light comes through their dense foliage. They 
shoot up very high before branching. I can see trees 
on the upland, but they are more scrubby. Many 
trees are lying in the water. 

" I go down the stream. What quantities of drift- 
wood ! The water is almost dammed by it. What 
monsters ! — large, spotted lizards like crocodiles ; 
some in the water, and others crawling on the soft 
mud. The water and the swamp are full of them. 
The spotted ones are too slender for crocodiles, and 
their jaws too long. 

"One I see with a short and broad mouth. At the 
connection of its legs with its body is a wing-like 
extension of the skin. It seems well suited for the 
water, but is clumsy on land. 

" I see many small animals that the large ones are 
in pursuit of. How rapidly they dart away ! One 
dives right into the mud, as a fish would into the 
water ; its sharp snout being well fitted for the work. 

" What monstrous reptiles ! Here is the struggle for 
life. I see many reptiles that look like newts, but 
they are from three to four feet long. The water here 
is very different from that which I first saw." 

Here the trees and the silicifying agencies seem to 
have come up first, as most intimately related to the 
history of the specimen ; then its surroundings during 
the Tertiary period, when it was drinking in the influ- 
ences of the crawlers that abounded there. If the ex- 
amination had been continued longer, I have no doubt 
that the images of the Tertiary quadrupeds would have 



110 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

presented themselves, and perhaps those of the early 
human occupants of the country. 

Here we have an evidence of the great deficiency 
of ordinary geological investigation, in revealing to 
us the various forms of life that have existed on the 
face of the globe. I think it probable that a thousand 
times as many animals existed, prior to the human 
period, as the paleontologist knows anything about. 
Take these Texan Tertiary deposits, and we find in 
them no bones, no footprints, nothing to tell of the 
myriads of animals that swarmed and rioted during 
countless generations, but the psychometric impres- 
sions, which seem to be the only means by which the 
gaps that at present exist in paleontology can be filled. 

EXPERIMENT XL VI. 

An experiment made with a Tertiary fossil, obtained 
near Calabazal, in Cuba, gave me a wider view of what 
this psychometric power is destined to do for science 
in the future than I ever possessed before. 

Mrs. Denton. 

" I see streams of water running down the side of a 
hill ; the water is very much charged with foreign 
matter. There are rocks visible, that seem to have 
been formed by deposit from the water. There are 
fossils in the rock, but they differ from any I ever saw 
before. 

" I go-back in time, and see a volcano and a shower 
of fire; There is a long dark strip of rock from the 
low ground up to the volcano. The land seems very 
unstable; rooking, and heaving up, and sinking down; 
sometimes appearing above the water,and then vanish- 



FOSSIL FROM CUBA. Ill 

ing beneath. I seem to be on an island. The eastern 
part is less stable than the western. All the western 
part is under water now. The island is longer from 
east to west than from north to south. It extends south 
of east, farther than directly east. 1 think it is south 
from here. The coast is very singular. I see what 
would probably be called a barrier reef along the 
coast, and so regular is a portion of it that it looks ar- 
tificial. 

" The climate is delightful. I seem to be on the 
north side of the island, west of the centre, and some- 
what inland. 

" I have a glimpse of a grove, with vines stretching 
from tree to tree, and naked boys climbing on them. 

" Farther south and east there is a strip of land 
richer than here. This seems to have been washed 
by the sea. There is a kind of point here, and I see 
what looks like an artificial ditch." 

At the time when this examination was made, I 
did not really know on what part of the island of 
Cuba the specimen was obtained ; but on writing to 
Mr. McDonell, of Madison, Wis., of whom I received it, 
he informed me that " Calabazal is twelve miles south 
of the city of Havana, at a point where a railroad 
crosses a stream, half way between Havana and Santi- 
ago." 

How wonderfully correct, then, were the statements 
of the psychometer. Cuba is seven hundred and fifty 
miles long from east to west, with an average breadth 
of about sixty miles ; consequently the island is 
" longer from east to west than from north to south." 
Its direction is E. S. E., hence " it extends south of 



112 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

east farther than directly east." The mountains in- 
crease iD height from the west to the east end of the 
island, where they are diffused over nearly the entire 
surface, some of them being nearly 8,000 feet high ; 
so that it is probable that the eastern part has been 
less stable than the western. The specimen was 
taken from " the north side of the island," " west of 
the centre," and twelve miles from the coast ; and con- 
sequently, " somewhat inland." It came from a place 
" south from here," which has a " delightful climate ; " 
and from a Tertiary bed, containing many fossils, dif- 
fering from any that Mrs. D. had seen before. It Avas 
taken from a railway cutting, which may explain the 
ditch that was seen. 

Let it be remembered that Mrs. D. did not see the 
specimen ; that she had no conception whatever as 
to the character of it, or the place from which it was 
obtained ; and that I did not know many of the facts 
stated during its examination, and its extraordinary 
character is most manifest. 

What is to prevent the accurate exploration of the 
Arctic and Antarctic regions by a process incompar- 
ably easier and cheaper than the expeditions of Parry, 
Ross, and Kane ? 

EXPERIMENT XL VII. 

Recently, tlie alligators that swarm in our southern 
rivers have been put to some useful account; oil being 
made from their bodies, and leather from their skins. 
A piece of this Leather I had given to me by a friend, 
and in a few days had an opportunity of trying it psy- 
chometrically. In this, as in all other experiments 
recorded, where the contrary is not stated, the psychom- 



LEATHER FROM ALLIGATOR'S SKIX. 113 

eter did not see the specimen/ and had no idea of what 
it was previous to the experiment. 

" I see an animal with a long neck and a long head. 
I see its skeleton. What a long neck ! I believe I 
can count the hones ; the processes are large and- wide 
apart. It is an animal much larger than a horse. I 
get this indistinctly, as if it really did not belong to it, 
or only incidentally. The skeleton resembles that of 
the sea cow I saw the other day." (In the Academy 
of Sciences, Chicago.) " I see a large leg, bent as if 
in walking. It is an alligator's. A little old man passes 
before me, with his feet on a chair j he is bent over as 
if doing something. 

"Now I am in another place altogether. Other seen* 
ery comes up, more tropical. I see plants and ani- 
mals, such as live in warmer countries than this. One 
animal, I see, is an enormous bird. There are hun- 
dreds of reptiles, too ; the water is alive with them. 
Two of them are eating the body of a dead animal. 
Some of them are alligators. There are many turtles 
of various kinds and sizes ; fishes, large frogs, and 
other animals." 

After informing her what it was, she said that she 
had come to the conclusion that it was an alligator's 
scale. 

The first influence may have come from the oil with 
which the leather was curried ; but the stronger influ- 
ence eventually makes itself felt. 

EXPEEI2IEXT XLVI1I. 

Near La Salle, Illinois, on the Illinois River, there is 
a large high rock of white sandstone, known by the 



114 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

name of Starved Rock, from a legend, which states 
that the remnant of an Indian tribe was starved to 
death upon it ; being surrounded by their enemies. 
On the top of the rock, and around it, are found, in 
great abundance, Indian arrow-points, arrow-heads, 
beads, and pieces of pottery. One of the latter was 
the subject of this experiment. Conditions as before. 

Mrs. Denton. 

" I see a round place, as large as the floor of this 
room ; and on it a fire is burning. It looks like a fire 
around which Indians gather. There are woods nearly 
surrounding the fire. I seem to have a night view. 

" There is a stream here, and I am hunted. A num- 
ber of fellows are paddling across and yelling. I think 
they are after me ; but I feel somewhat secure, though I 
know not why. Now they are across ; I can see them, 
but they cannot see me. They go Indian file, and they 
look like Indians. How they shout and whoop ! I 
am crossing over their track, and running into the 
woods on the other side. I have come to the conclu- 
sion that they were not after me. I seem to have too 
much calm, steady thought for an Indian. ;; 

Who was this fugitive, and how came this piece of 
pottery to record this incident in liis life? The debris 
of the old Indian villages abounds with biographies of 
the old aboriginal warriors and their families, and if 
a man chose to devote himself io the work, ho might 
write the histories of the Csesars and Napoleons of 
die New World, whoso names are all unknown. 

EXPERIMENT M.IX. 

The Autobiography of a JJoulder. — At Jayncsvillo, 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP A BOULDER. 115 

Wis. , I obtained from a hill of gravel that had been 
cut through by the railroad, a boulder of dark trap, of 
somewhat peculiar appearance, and weighing probably 
four or five pounds. Breaking off a fragment, the fol- 
lowing was obtained from it psychometrically, the psy- 
chometer knowing nothing of it, and the angular frag- 
ment conveying, of course, no idea of its character to 
the mere touch. 

" Mercy ! what a whirl things are in ! I do not 
know what to make of it. I feel as if I were being 
belched out of a volcano ; there is water and mud, and 
everything is in a perfect whirl. There are great 
pieces of rock beside me, some larger than I feel my- 
self to be, though I am of great size. 

" This is the strangest feeling I ever had. I am 
sent up whirling in a torrent of water, mud and rocks ; 
not sent out, but it is puff, puff, whirl, whirl, all of us 
flying round together. 

" Now I am lodged. I can hear that puff, puff, how- 
ever, and with every puff, the water rushes out, so 
that it seems as though the volcano were vomiting. 
Now, a torrent of water rushing back sweeps me from 
my resting-place, and I am rolling in again. What 
fury there is down there ! I did not go far down. 
Another gush, and I am washed a long way off. I can 
see it boil over now, but do not feel it. I see no fire 
; about it, though there is steam, and, I think, gas. 

" I am now away down the side of a mountain, and 
feel quite, benumbed. I can just hear that belching 
sound and feel the heaving of the ground. Here I lie 
f">r a long time. 

" At last I fall into a cavity, a deep one, very rough 



116 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

and uneven. It is dark. I perceive the influence of 
water in my neighborhood. How shall we ever get 
out of here ? I am surrounded on all sides. 

" The water has burst in with great power, and it is 
spinning me round and round. I am being moved 
onward by little and little during a long time. (I 
must hurry along, for it is a vast period.) I am now 
in a kind of notch, where the rushing water keeps me 
in a constant whirl. 

" At last I see the daylight. There is a long shelf 
that slants down into the water; I am washed right 
up on it, and the water has left me. It is a long body 
of water, larger and wider than a river ; it looks like a 
lake, and has waves of considerable size. 

" The water rises again ; it washes around me, and 
I am carried back into it. All is dark now. I am 
washed on into a deep and wide hole. I am far under 
ground and under water. There is a strong current, 
and I am being rushed along by it. A strange feeling 
of passiveness possesses me, a disposition to go as it 
comes. It seems so strange to me. I feel as if a 
great deal larger then than now. I keep moving 
slowly along, slide a little, roll a little, stop a little, 
and knock against the side now and then — one side, 
however, more than the other; I do not know why 
that should be. 

" I am out once more. I lie in a basin, in a large 
open place. I am not at the bottom of the basin, how- 
ever, for other rooks are below me. (How cold the 
water is!) The basin is gradually filling up, by rocks 
rolling in. II is in a terribly cold latitude. I am all 
in a chill." (She fairly shook with cold.) 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PEBBLE. 117 

" I feel now as if there were something over me 
besides water. I don't know what it is, though.'' 
(The room was very warm, yet she drew her chair 
close up to the stove.) "It is strange that I see so 
little — I just feel and act. The basin in which I lie 
is shallow from me up. That which lies over me must 
be ice, for I can see light through it. I am fast in it 
too. My connection with this ice seems to give me a 
connection with all the country round, so that now I 
can see for many miles. There is a great depth of 
ice ; I look up through it ; it is a long way to the top, 
and seems unbroken for a great distance. 

" How strange ! The ice has broken loose, and I 
am in motion now, travelling southwest. It goes very 
heavily, hitching now and then. There is a kind of 
pitching forward of the upper part that surprises me ; 
ice certainly could not do that ; the under part seems 
to go slower than the upper; it cannot be possible, 
and yet it seems so. How intensely cold it is ! The 
noise the ice makes in moving is awful to me, though 
I do not suppose it could be heard far ; and yet here, . 
it is a terrible grinding noise, with a ring to it. 

" It seems as if I had come a long way ; but it is 
strange how slow it moves. I do not understand how 
'I solid body could move in this way, for a part of it 
moves faster than another part ; and yet it seems all 
solid ; it is incomprehensible. It is a flat, thick mass 
m ice, several miles broad. How insignificant a tree 
Dr a house would be in its pathway ! 

" It seems as if we had a hard time of it, scraping, 
^scratching, and grinding along. It meets with obsta- 
bles and checks, more than would be produced by mere 



118 , THE SOUL OF THIKGS. 

unevenness of the ground. I am so far back, that 1 
do not feel all that the front has to contend with. 

"It seems to be growing warmer now. I do not 
feel as cold as I did. It is a great deal warmer, and 
the heat seems to come from beneath too. The ice is 
melting, dripping, and running. It seems to melt away 
from under; I do not understand that. It does not 
seem as if we had come far enough south to make all 
this difference in climate. 

" The ice is leaving me, I believe. Yes, it is. The 
length of the ice surprises me ; it seems like a long 
coast of ice ; great cliffs rising up like walls. It melts 
and melts, and keeps sliding on, faster since it melted 
so. rapidly. I have dropped out of the place where I 
was, on to the ground, and I am only moved occasion- 
ally now. The front of the ice is miles ahead of me, 
and overhead the great mass still goes on. I am still 
moved on a little occasionally, but the ice is fast leav- 
ing. I am nearly out from under, but the front is still 
a long way ahead." 

She was too much fatigued to continue the experi- 
ment any longer, or doubtless it would have revealed 
much more. What it did reveal is significant. 

North of the fortieth degree of north latitude, on 
this continent, we find, covering the face of the coun- 
i ry, beds of sand, gravel, or clay, and, sometimes mixed 
with these, or lying above them, boulders, or, as they 
are sometimes termed, erratic blocks and lost rocks. 
These rocks frequently differ in I heir mineral composi- 
lion from the rocks in the neighborhood of which they 
are found ; and the rocks with which they are identical 
in composition are generally found north of their pres- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PEBBLE. 119 

ent localities, sometimes, indeed, many hundreds of 
miles. Beneath these beds, which are known to the 
geologist in the aggregate, as the drift or glacial form- 
ation, we find upon the solid rock scratches or furrows, 
that have evidently been made by the passage of some 
body over them; that body, from the appearance of 
these furrows, having moved in a general direction 
from north to south. These beds and appearances 
excited the attention of thinking observers for a long 
time, before any theory was formed of their origin, ade- 
quate to account for the facts observed in connection 
with them. At the present time it is universally con- 
ceded that ice has been the principal agent concerned 
in their production ; but with regard to its operation 
there is considerable difference of opinion. One party 
supposes that during the drift period, the time when 
these beds and appearances were formed, this northern 
country, over which the drift extends, was under 
water ; and icebergs, laden with fragments of rock and 
detritus, swept by glaciers from some northern re- 
gion, came floating clown, as they now do from the 
west coast of Greenland into the Atlantic Ocean, and 
stranded upon the shore ; but, impelled by a south- 
ward-flowing current, they slid over the floor of the 
ocean, and their imbedded pebbles made the furrows 
[ or scratches ; and, on melting, the material with which 
they were laden was left upon the floor of the ocean, 
forming, when that became dry land, the beds of drift to 
which I have referred.- Another party supposes that, 
c owing to some cause as yet unexplained, this northern 
ii country had, during the drift period, an intensely cold 
Innate, so much so that snow falling could not melt, 



120 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

but became condensed by its weight into a grand sheet 
of ice of vast thickness, which covered the face of the 
country; and that this sheet of ice, moving in the only 
direction in which it could melt ; namely, toward the 
south, passed over the country, grinding down the 
rocks in its march, and leaving upon them those plain 
indications of its progress, which the glacial furrows 
and beds present. 

There are many difficulties in the way of accepting 
the glacial theory, as it is termed, but the psychometric 
experiments that we have made upon scratched rocks, 
point unvaryingly to the existence of glacial action at 
the localities from which the specimens were derived ; 
and at the same time the action of icebergs is indica- 
ted as one of the auxiliaries in producing the varied 
phenomena belonging to the drift. 

It is a remaikable fact, a fact with which Mrs. D. was 
unacquainted at the time that the above examination 
was made, that ice, moving in the form of a glacier, trav- 
els with unequal velocity. Thus, in an article on gla- 
ciers and glacial theories, in the Westminster Review, 
the writer says : — " The rate of movement of all parts 
of a glacier is by no means the same. Sometimes the 
commencement and the end appear to move somewhat 
faster than the middle, sometimes the lower end moves 
more swiftly than the upper, — differences which 
doubtless proceed from changes in the form of the 
valley, mid consequent variations in the amount of re- 
sistance; at. different points. But there is a constant 
and most important discrepancy between the rate of 
motion of the central pari, of the glacier and that of 
(lie side.-: i!i" former being invariably found to be mov- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PEBBLE. 121 

i*Dg onward much more quickly than the latter. The 
same relation appears to hold good between the super- 
ficial and the deeper portions, so that the motion of a 
glacier resembles that of a flowing body. It matters 
not whether we choose a limpid fluid like water, or a 
viscus fluid like tar, if we allow either to flow, and 
then measure the velocity of its different parts, we 
shall discern that the lateral and inferior portions are 
retarded by friction against the walls of the channel, 
and hence that the top flows faster than the bottom, the 
middle than the sides." 

On seeing this psychometrically, Mrs. D.'s- astonish- 
ment was very great, and she could scarcely credit 
the possibility of her vision being correct in this par- 
ticular ; yet, the scientific accuracy of it, the well-in- 
formed reader will see at a glance. 

There is one portion of the psychometric descrip- 
tion that deserves particular notice ; it is that in which 
the heat is spoken of as coming up from the earth into 
the ice and melting it. The spot where the boulder 
was obtained is on the edge of that singular region of 
No Drift, which is nearly coincident with the lead re- 
gion of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa ; extending all 
around for a few miles beyond the district in which 
lead is found. On every side of this district drift is 
abundantly distributed, especially to the north of it ; 
but within that charmed circle you cannot find even a 
drift pebble. What can be the reason of this ? Some 
have suggested, that, during the drift period, this por- 
tion of the country was an island, so far elevated 
above the waves that drifting icebergs never reached 
it, and consequently deposited no drift. But this ex- 



122 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

planation takes for granted that all drift phenomena 
were produced by floating icebergs, which is far from 
being proved. How does it happen that the region of 
the No Drift is coincident with the lead region, and 
that there is no other portion of this continent, north 
of the fortieth parallel, in which drift is thus absent ? 

I have long been of the opinion that the lead in the 
region referred to, has come from below, in the state of 
vapor, through the underlying porous sandstone into 
the magnesian limestones in which it is found ; the de- 
posits having been formed by sublimation, at a time 
when the rocks were heated to a certain degree, even 
to the surface ; indications of which are plain and abun- 
dant. This may have occurred during the drift peri- 
od, and, as the glaciers came down from the north and 
northeast, they melted as they came near this heated 
district, leaving their detritus on the spot, and thus 
formed those immense accumulations of drift that are 
found in Wisconsin, north of the lead region. I had 
no thought of this theory at the time that we made 
the examination, but our examinations favor it very 
strongly ; for, if so, the circumstances described in the 
ast experiment, must have taken place at or near the 
very place from which the boulder was obtained. 

EXPERIMENT L. 

Some glimpses of the ancient world that we have 
occasionally had, seem to indicate that the earth was 
once surrounded by a, ring, or rings, like those sur- 
rounding the planet Saturn, which having become bro- 
K'li from time i<» linn', have dropped to the earth in 
fragments. Some of them yet remaining in space, and 



RING SURROUNDING THE EARTH. 123 

occasionally drawn within the sphere of the earth's at- 
traction, may constitute a portion of those bodies 
known as shooting stars and aerolites ; while others 
still remaining may produce the appearance known as 
the zodiacal light. I have not had an opportunity of 
verifying this by the statements of other psychomo- 
tors, but hope to do so at some time. This experiment 
gave us the first presentation of this appearance : — 

Soapstone from the bed of a creek near Painesville. 
Devonian formation. 

Mrs. Denton. 

" Did you get this from a stream ? for I seem to be 
in the bed of a creek. There are two trees on one 
side and an open space on the other.' 7 - (This is cor- 
rect.) "I see a tropical region, and plants and ani- 
mals in great abundance. I see the sun setting, but 
the atmosphere does not look clear as now. It looks 
much as it does when very foggy. There is a long 
circular belt or arch of light in the water, that looks 
as if reflected from something above. The sun is still 
above the horizon, but I see the light of this body 
notwithstanding, for the dark atmosphere seems to 
prevent the sun's light from obscuring it. 

" Now I see it in the sky; it is a segment of an arch ; 
but there seems to be more of it than I can see. It ex- 
tends from the eastern horizon upward for about sev- 
enty degrees, at least that is as far as I can see it. It 
looks about as broad as the full moon, ye*t has a faint 
appearance of being broader." 

A few days afterward, from the same specimen, the 
belt was seen in the heavens again, but much broader 
than before ; apparently, three times as broad. The 



121- THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

sun's place in the heavens was about twenty degrees 
south of the belt. It did not appear this time nearly 
as bright as before ; it looked as if covered with a 
veil, hiding its brightness, though through it the shape 
was distinctly revealed. 

EXPERIMENT Id. 

The next three experiments were made for the pur- 
pose of discovering the condition of the earth, and of 
its fauna and flora, during the Carboniferous period, 
and their revelations are of great interest to the 
paleontologist, In no case was the specimen known. 

Small specimen from a bone bed in the Coal Mea- 
sures, near Youngstown, Mahoning County, Ohio. 
There are impressions of plants in the shale below. 

Mrs. Denton. 

" I see plants as tall as a man ; two-thirds of the 
way up the stalk, is a bright, yellowish red bud ; I call 
it a bud for want of a more appropriate name ; out 
of it the upper stalk appears to grow. It is really on 
one side of the main stem, but grows with it for some 
distance. There # is just one bud on each plant. At 
the end of the stalk is something that looks like a corn 
tassel. The plants are quite succulent, and cover 
the ground completely, as close together as they can 
grow. 

" I see ribs, naked ribs, and now the skeleton of a 
Long animal! I sec another skeleton, longer than the 
first, bul the ribs are no1 as large. Now I sec the ani- 
mal; ii resembles a lizard, and has a fringe of long 
spines along the back. 

"I see another animal, with a scalloped shell upon 



SANDSTONE, WESTERN RESERVE. 125 

its back. It has somewhat the appearance of a turtle 
with a scalloped shell all round. 

" I see a fish, with spines from the head to the end 
of the tail. All I see looks odd, strange." 

EXPERIMENT LII. 

Sub-carboniferous sandstone, Western Reserve, Ohio. 

Mrs. Denton. 

" I see something that looks like a plant, but it dif- 
fers from anything I ever saw before. It has several 
stalks that go up to a certain height, and a round body 
encloses the whole ; then they go up again smaller, 
and are enclosed in a similar manner ; then again ; 
and then at the top it branches into heads, mak- 
ing it, altogether, about three feet in height. That 
which encloses the stalks looks something like a recep- 
taculite.* 

" The stalks that support the little heads, of which 
there are some five or six, seem to be furnished with 
cilia in constant motion ; and from the heads proceed 
tentacles, also having a constant, wavy motion. They 
must be some low kind of animal, instead of plant ; 
probably, belonging to the radiates. The heads, as I 
call them, move somewhat as I have seen crinoids. 
The bodies encircling the stems are of a brown color, 
the stems somewhat lighter. They are really beau- 
tiful. 

" The water is very dark, and seems quite thick ; it 
has much the color of smoked glass. It is not caused 
by mud, however, but it is chemically impure. There 
is a long, low, flat piece of ground with plants growing 

* A coral -like fossil found in the Silurian formation. 



126 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

on it, that look like high weeds. The water rises so 
as to cover it occasionally. The atmosphere is dark 
and heavy." 

EXPERIMENT LIU. 

A piece of anthracite coal from Pennsylvania. 

Mrs. Denton. 

" I see a shallow stream of water that looks like a 
kind of bayou. A dense vapor hangs over it, that it is 
difficult to penetrate. I seem to be in a boggy place, 
where there is a great deal of vegetable matter be- 
neath me, not floating on the water, but the water is 
all through it, so that it .is soft and spongy. I should 
think there are two or three hundred feet of vegeta- 
ble matter beneath my feet ; and it seems as if I could 
shake acres of it all round. 

" I see an island of higher ground in this swamp, 
with a dead tree twenty or thirty feet high upon it. I 
had a glimpse just then of an enormous lizard-like 
animal." 

Such examinations have given me a more vivid, and, 
at the same time, what seems to be a more correct 
idea of the Carboniferous era than I ever had, before 
investigating the subject psychometrically. 

Many may object to the apparent abundance of 
reptilian forms that were presented in these exami- 
nations; but the number of fossil reptiles, known to 
geologists, in the Carboniferous formation, is constantly 
increasing. 

According to Lyell, previous to the year 1844, no 
remains of air-breathing animals were known as low 
us the Coal Measures. In ten years from this time, 
thai is, in L854, the skeletons, or portions of the skele- 



GLOBULAR FOSSIL FRCA WISCONSIN. 127 

tons, of no less than seven Carboniferous reptiles, 
referred to five different genera, were brought to 
light, besides numerous reptilian footprints, made by 
animals larger than those whose bones were discov- 
ered. 

From the great number of genera compared with the 
number of species, we may safely infer that the num- 
ber of species of reptiles, existing during the Carbon- 
iferous period, Avas very much greater than that 
discovered ; and that we have made the acquaintance 
of but a few of a very numerous family, whose por- 
traits Nature has carefully preserved in her rocky 
galleries. And although, at present, but one reptilian 
form is known to the geologist in the Devonian forma- 
tion, yet, I am well satisfied, that, during the deposition 
of the Chemung group, one of the higher groups of the 
Devonian formation in the State of New York, rep- 
tilian forms abounded in the waters, although not a 
bone or track of them has yet been found. At some 
future time we may refer to these early reptiles again. 

EXPERIMENT LIV. 

A peculiar globular fossil, about an inch in diameter, 
found near Evansville, Wisconsin, in the Upper Magne- 
sian or Galena Limestone. It is, probably, a fossil rad- 
iate of some kind. 

Mrs. Denton. Specimen seen. 

" A remarkably beautiful view is presented. I see 
a shell more than a foot long. Near it are several 
singular bodies, having roots like plants and stems 
five or six feet long ; on the top is a green translu- 
cent body, with a soft gelatinous covering, fully half 



128 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

an inch thick. The interior reflects through the trans- 
lucent green, giving a mixture of orange, purple, and 
a tinge of pink. Among them is a large star-fish, or 
an animal of that kind ; it is covered with spines. 1 
perceive branches spreading from the top of that 
green animal. (This water is poisonous, I believe ; it 
seems as if it would poison me now.) 

"I see a long body, a foot in diameter, which looks 
like a green feathery brush, collected around some 
small body. 

" Two eyes come before me, and disappear in an in- 
stant. I see that shell again, and another one, curved 
and thicker in proportion to its length. The animal of 
the first is retreating into its shell. There is some- 
thing at the end of the head, of the same shape as the 
orifice of the shell. The animal seems slimy. Some 
of them look double, as if there were two bodies in 
one shell, or two heads united in one body. I see 
one go right into the shell, and the cover, I saw, comes 
tight down and closes it. It does not seem to do it 
often, only when it is alarmed. As snails thrust out 
horns, so this thrusts out two bodies that resemble 
them. There are bodies at the end of them that look 
Btrange ; they are brick-colored, and I believe are 
eyes; the animal itself is dark-colored." 

These forms arc in harmony with what we know of 
life, during the period of the deposition of the lime- 
stone in which the fossil was found. The Galena lime 
Btone belongs to the Lower Silurian formation, and at 
tin- time of its deposition, molluscs, articulates, and 
radiates abounded ; and we do not know that any 
higher animals than these existed. Many beautiful 



POTSDAM SANDSTONE, WISCONSIN. 129 

radiates, with plant-like stems and flower-like bodies, 
must have flourished in the heated waters of those 
early oceans. 

EXPERIMENT LV. 

Having obtained a specimen of Potsdam sandstone, • 
when in Wisconsin, I subjected it to psychometric ex- 
amination. 

Mrs. Denton. 

" I see sheUs ; multitudes of them, swimming and 
floating on the water. Everything is so small and 
delicate here ! There are many small bivalves. A 
delicate fan-like leaf comes floating along ; it is lightish 
green, and looks as if it grew in the water. 

" I see a shell much larger than the bivalves ; it 
seems a univalve, but it is still small. Everything is 
very diminutive. There are many species of minute 
organic forms, but they are too small almost for notice. 

" The large shell, of which I spoke, has the mouth 
covered with a flexible membrane, through which the 
animal sucks. This membrane it sometimes presses 
out, so as to make it convex at the mouth of the 
shell." 

The organic forms existing during the period of the 
deposition of the Potsdam sandstone, were generally 
small, if Ave may judge from the fossils whose remains 
have been discovered in it. This was not, however, 
invariable ; for the tracks found on slabs belonging to 
this period, in various parts of Canada, show that crus- 
taceans, larger than our ordinary crabs, crawled along 
the sandy shores at this time. Life probably existed 
in much higher forms in some parts of the earth than 



130 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

others, during the same geologic period, notwithstand- 
ing the general similarity of organic forms in contem- 
poraneous formations. 



EXPERIMENT LVI. 



The Potsdam sandstone, which lies at the base of 
the Silurian formation in North America, was long 
supposed to be the lowest fossiliferous rock on the con- 
tinent ; and its fossils, of which but few were known, 
were regarded as the earliest representatives of life 
that existed in the ocean, at that period, covering 
nearly the whole land. 

To Dr. Emmons must be attributed the discovery of 
fossiliferous beds, on this continent, lower than the 
Potsdam sandstone. But it is hardly presumable that 
the Taconic formation, the name which he gives to the 
fossiliferous beds below the Potsdam, contains the re- 
mains of the earliest organic beings. As we have one 
formation, the Silurian, that contains no remains of 
reptiles, others still higher, the Devonian and Carbon- 
iferous, that contain no remains of birds, there may bo 
a formation, yet to be discovered, in which no fish 
remains exist ; another, lower, in which articulate fos- 
sils shall be absent; and another, still lower, in which 
even the mollusks shall disappear, and the radiata be 
the only representatives of animal existence on the 
globe. The Huronian rocks, largely developed in 
Canada, on the borders of Lakes Huron and Superior, 
are known to be older than the Potsdam sandstone, for 
that sandstone is found resting upon them; but the 
Laurentian group is still older, for the Huronian rocks 
are found resting unconformable upon it, showing that 



LAURENTIAN LIMESTONE. 131 

the rocks composing it were deposited, consolidated, 
and upheaved before the Huronian beds were laid 
down. How much older than the Potsdam sandstone 
then are these beds ! These metamorphic beds of 
gneiss, crystallized limestone, &c, have been examined 
over a large area ; but, as might be supposed, in such 
highly metamorphosed rocks, no recognizable fossil has 
yet been found, though bodies have been discovered 
that bear some resemblance to the coral Stromatapora 
rugosa, but no paleontologist, that I am aware, accepts 
these as actual fossils, though several have suspected 
their organic origin. Had not the limestones of the 
Laurentian group been metamorphosed, I have no 
doubt they would have yielded fossils in great abun- 
dance. As it is, their forms have vanished ; but the 
heat that could destroy their forms, could not dissi- 
pate their influence, and hence the psychometer finds 
them instinct with life. 

I gave to Mrs. Denton a piece of crystallized lime- 
stone, from the Laurentian rocks at Perth, Canada West, 
she being unaware of its nature. 

" I see an object that consists of three leaf-shaped 
divisions, that expand and contract ; when expanded, 
it is more than an inch across ; but when contracted, 
it seems to sink into cells, somewhat like the coral 
polyps. There is a stalk about six inches long, on 
which this portion rests, which has cells all round it. 

"I see many objects now that it is difficult to de- 
scribe. One, about two inches long and one inch in 
diameter in the widest part, is round, grows on a stalk, 
and expands about two-thirds of the way to the top, 
and then diminishes more rapidly to an end that is not 



132 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

as small as the other. It has some appearance of a 
crinoid, but differs from any that I have ever seen. 
The upper part branches out like foliage ; it has a 
pinkish tinge. There are open places on the sides, 
through which tentacles are protruded and drawn in 
again. I see those on the top contract and expand, 
but not as much so, I think, as the other. I see many 
corals too, with larger cells than I ever saw before. I 
can see the polyps very clearly. There are many dif- 
ferent forms here." 

The Laurentian rocks, styled by the government 
geologists of Canada the oldest rocks of the globe, 
may possibly prove to belong to the Radiate era, the 
dawn of the morning of life on our planet. 

EXPERIMENT LV1I. 

I placed in a box the following specimens, each 
wrapped separately in a piece of paper, so that no one 
by ordinary sight could be distinguished from another : 
Fragments of the Porcelain Tower, China ; Mastodon's 
tooth ; Bone of fossil fish ; Brick from ancient Rome ; 
Limestone from Mount Lebanon ; Temple of Minerva, 
Baii; Obsidian, Mexico; Sandstone from Connecticut 
Valley ; Limestone from Mackinaw ; Hornstonc, Mount 
of Olives ; Fossil wood from Kansas ; Lava, Mount 
Vesuvius; Antimony, Borneo; Lead ore, Flatteville, 
Wisconsin; Boulder, Jaynesville, Wisconsin; Silver 
ore, Mexico; Aerolite; White marble, Anti-Libanus ; 
Lava, Kiilauea; Conglomerate, Lake Superior; Gold- 
bearing quartz, Australia ; Glacial-scratched rock, Wis- 
consin; and Basalt, PingaPs Cave 1 , Staffa. 

Mrs. Denton took out one of these, no one knowing 



fingal's cave. 133 

which it was, and described what she saw and felt as 
follows : — 

" I can hardly tell whether I am on the surface or 
under ground. I seem to be in a kind of cave, but I 
do not have that chilly feeling that belongs to caves. 
If a cave, it is a large one. It is a cave of some 
kind, and yet cave is hardly a proper name for it. It 
is open to daylight, with a wide entrance. I do not 
know how I got in here. I do not seem to stand on 
the ground at all, or on rock. It seems as if there 
were water in there. How did they explore it ? 
Parts of the rocks are drenched with water. The 
cave is open to a great body of water that, comes in. 
On each side there are — what shall I call them? — 
pillars of rock. 

" It looks dark farther in. I feel as if in water, and 
not a great way from other land. I have glimpses 
of land at a comparatively short distance. It feels 
like the sea where I am. At the opening of the cave 
there are shorter pillars that do not reach to the roof; 
I see them on the left-hand side in going in. How ' 
delightful to sail in there ! There is a grandeur and 
novelty about it that few other places possess. How 
high the entrance is ! The floor seems to be water ; I 
can see no other floor. These are regular columns ; 
they are not rough and uneven, as rock generally is. 1 
am reminded of Fingal's Cave ; it looks like the pic- 
ture of it which I have seen. 

" There is a sensation of sailing in there, or more as 
if a vessel went dashing by me. I caught a glimpse 
of rigging just then ; it vanished in an instant. I can 
hear the sea roaring and dashing, both. There w 



134 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

something terrific about it." (Mrs. D. had never seen 
the sea at this time.) "It has such a feeling of unceas- 
ing, never-ending motion about it. 

" I see a large bird, and hear several screaming. 
What can they find on such a rock as that ? I see no 
vegetation. They alight on some of those columns. 
How they delight in daring the dashing waves and the 
storm. I see a great many now ; they inspire me. I 
see fishes in the water, but not distinctly ; I just catch 
a glimpse of them now and then. 

" The sensation of the whole is almost overwhelm- 
ing : standing here all alone with the wide expanse, 
the roaring waves, the screaming birds, where human 
beings seldom come — how grand ! There is a majes- 
tic loneliness about it that attracts me ; I want to dare 
the elements with those birds. 

" I think that roof has extended farther out at some 
time. Yes, a great deal farther out. I seem to hear 
it fall into the water with a terrible crash and splash. 
I think it bent round to the right and joined some 
other land at a vastly distant period. What a mag- 
nificent place this was once ! How much we have lost 
of the beauty of the past ! It has been more than as 
long again at one time ; what remains is but the end 
of it. There arc columns still remaining out in the 
water, at a distance from the shore. 

" The land lias been all around here for a long wa} T 
;it sonic time. There was once an extensive tract, 
which lias sunk under water. The sensation I have, is 
more of its having sunk than of its being wa 
away, though thai has been done to some extent. The 
3eems to have vibrated for some time before it 



fingal's cave. 135 

became stationary. I see it rise and sink, rise and 
sink, over a considerable extent. I do not see how it 
could have been, Tout that is what I perceive. 

u There is quite a number of islands around here. 
The main body of the land seems to have sunk and 
left them. I wonder if some of them are not the tops 
of mountains.' 7 

Half the examination was made, before she knew 
that I had a specimen from FingaPs Cave in my pos- 
session ; yet, had she visited it in person, a more accu- 
rate description of the cave and its surroundings, 
according to the statements of many visitors, could 
hardly have been given. 

Staffa, the island on which FingaPs Cave is situated, 
is one of the Hebrides, or Western Isles, of which 
there are one hundred and sixty. Sir J. Banks gives 
the following measurements of the cave : — Length 
from the rock without, 371 ft. 6 in. ; breadth of the 
mouth, 53 ft. 7 in. ; and height of the arch at the 
mouth, 117 ft. 6 in. There are pillars from thirty to 
fifty feet in height, and the sides are columnar through- 
out. "As the sea never ebbs entirely out, the only 
floor of this beautiful cave is the fine green water." 

Some months afterward I accidentally met with a 
description of the island of Staffa, by J. MacCuUoch, 
M. D., F. L. S., in the Monthly Magazine for 1815, in 
which are statements that corroborate some of the 
ideas advanced duriog the previous examination. He 
says, "I took notice of a fact of considerable impor- 
tance in the natural history of this island, which had 
before escaped the remarks of visitors. This is the 
occurrence of a bed of alluvial matter on some parts 



136 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

of the surface, containing fragments of the older rocks. 
It is most easily seen at that side of the island which 
faces Iona, and on the summit of the cliffs of a semi- 
circular bay opening in that direction. The bed is 
here broken at the edge of the cliff, so as to expose 
its thickness for a considerable extent. But the same 
appearance may also be observed immediately above 
the ordinary landing place, where the bed has also 
been broken. The stones which it contains are all 
rounded, and of various, often considerable, dimen- 
sions, and they exhibit specimens of granite, gneiss, 
micaceous schists, quartz, and red sandstone. To- 
gether with these are some rolled pieces of basalt. 

" Here then is a circumstance in the mineral history 
of Staffa, adventitious it is true, but involving difficul- 
ties of no small importance. If we cast our eyes on 
the map, we shall perceive that it is embayed in a large 
sinuosity formed in* the island of Mull, and nearly en- 
closed on the opposite side by Iona and the Treshan- 
isk islands. Beyond the latter a second line is drawn 
by Tiney and Coll; while to the north, but at a greater 
distance, are placed the islands of Muck, Rum, Egg, 
Carina and Sivy." After thus examining the whole 
ground, lie says that he has arrived at the conclusion 
that " Staffa lias formed part of one continuous land 
with the islands of Coll, Tiny, and Mull." He is of 
the opinion, however, that (he separation was caused 
sea wearing away the missing land, and leaving 
the islands as we now find them. 

EXPERIMENT l.Yili. 

Mother-o£pear] opal, southwest of Lake Yajoa, Nica- 
raugua. 



MOTHEE-OF-PEABL OPAL. , 137 

Mrs. Denton. Specimen unseen and unknown. 

" I see the action of electricity on fine particles of 
matter. A flat, circular surface appears, composed of 
fine particles of matter, segregated from the sur- 
rounding rock by electrical forces. 

" I see a number of persons that seem quite busy ; 
they are in a row, and are bent over doing something. 
This is a mountainous district, but the mountains do 
not seem to be in one continuous chain; the peaks 
are scattered. Between the mountains are broad lands 
that are to some extent inhabited. I see a village off 
at a distance ; I think it stands on high table-land ; I 
have to look between mountain peaks to see it. I see 
this like a panoramic view ; I do not seem to be there. 

" Near me is a deep chasm, very deep ; yet there is 
land above me, — heights on either side. The country 
has quite a peculiar appearance, unlike any country 
I have ever been in before. There is a kind of dark 
shade to everything; it may be some peculiarity of 
the foliage, but I do not know. 

" There is a human influence about this that is for- 
eign ; it is the influence of a people I am not familiar 
with. Their influence is singular ; I cannot see them, 
but I feel their spirit. They might be called civilized, 
but they do not take the interest in art, science, or 
intellectual investigations that enlightened people do. 
They seem very well satisfied with things as they 
are. 

" They are religious, but their religion does not 
seem to affect their conduct much ; it does not enter 
into the soul. They may be very tenacious of their 
faith, and observe the ceremonies of the church with 



138 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

great precision, but their standard of morals is low; 
they lack strength of intellect and power of thought. 

" One character comes before me every few minutes, 
— a team-driver. He carries a long whip, and shouts 
and sings by himself; shouts to his mules, and jumps 
on one and rides, instead of getting into his cart. Oc- 
casionally he sits on one side, like a woman. It seems 
as if he had no purpose in life beyond the enjoyment 
of the present. He comes up before me, among those 
hills and mountains, with his team. I think he comes 
from that village I saw. He wears a short kind of 
frock overcoat, loose pants, that look odd, and has a 
slouched hat. 

" It seems to me I could spend months in wan- 
dering among these mountains, ravines, and deep caii- 
ons, — some of them so deep I -cannot see the bot- 
tom of them. I cannot tell how the people manage to 
travel in this country, and yet they seem to do so, 
for I see roads here and there. 

" This seems to me to be a district where either 
precious stones or precious metals are obtained, and I 
think those people, that were stooping, must have been 
engaged in getting something valuable, either out of 
the stream or out of the rock. There is very pure 
water in streams here, but it does not remain in sight 
for a great distance, they wind among the hills so. A 
beginning lias hardly been made in developing ilie 
mineral wealth of this country; it seems so quiet, so 
utterly undisturbed. Why has there not been a differ* 
"Hi class of people liere ? 

"At one place, underground, is an opening, deep 
and narrow, a kind of chasm, in which there are trca- 



THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS. 139 

sures. What a pure feeling there is about thern ; they 
must be precious stones, for I do not feel the metallic 
influence which gold gives. There is the common 
rock of the country, and these loose fragments of fine 
material. This place in which I now am, seems like 
an underground canon the rushing waters have been 
wearing for ages ; there is some water there now. At 
the bottom are precious stones in wonderful abun- 
dance. The feeling of purity connected with them is 
delightful. Some have been gathered from the sur- 
face, but underground, is wealth they never dreamed 

of. 7 ; 

It is unnecessary for me to dwell upon this examina- 
tion ; the description given of the country and its in- 
habitants will be acknowledged, by those who are ac- 
quainted with them, to be correct ; while the psychom- 
eter plucks out the heart of the secret of the speci- 
men under examination. 

EXPERIMENT L1X. 

One evening in December, 1862, when trying a crys- 
tal of amethystine quartz from St. Catherine's Bay, on 
the Saguenay, a tributary of the St. Lawrence, Mrs. 
Denton seemed to obtain, very readily, comprehensive 
views of the country to the north of there, and event- 
ually appeared to pass into the polar regions, though 
nothing of the kind was anticipated when the experi- 
ment commenced. 

" The Hudson's Bay region is a great deal warmer 
than I supposed. I see lakes and streams over such 
a wide surface that they seem like pictures. I had no 
idea that these extreme northern regions had as tern- 



140 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

perate a climate as they seem to me now to possess. I 
see a large river, much larger than I expected to find 
in this region. I see vast mountains of ice and snow. 
I do not know where I am, but I seem beyond the 
limit of the land, on the ice. 

" In the distance are mountains that look as if they 
were land. Some are very high, and one I think is a 
volcano ; if so, it is in a state of eruption now. There 
is a bluish, purplish, soft haze around it, and a kind of 
mellow light over all. It really seems warmer than it 
does here.* It is so strange, it appears like another 
world. It seems a long way beyond the boundary of 
this continent. I fancy that must be the very pole 
itself. There is water between me and it. It does 
not seem as cold as I should have expected to find it, 
and I see neither snow nor ice. The heat seems to 
come from the interior, and yet I cannot think it possi- 
ble. There seem to be boiling springs there, 

" Now I see mountains of ice and snow again ; I 
think I must be returning." 

SE COXD EX AMI X A TIOX. 

"How different from countries that I have previ- 
ously explored ! In the far north there are not those 
continuous forests to shut out the view, and hence the 
eye takes a wide sweep. The cold of that country, 
after all, is not as terrible as I had supposed. It is its 
continuity that makes it so dreadful. How those 
snow-peaks shine, as the sun glances on them! There 
al plateaus all covered with snow, and beyond 
that the open Bea, where if is much wanner." 

- We were then in Quebec. • 



THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS. 141 

THIRD EXAMINATION. 

"I go under the surface through the rock, for that 
is the easier, to the north of Hudson's Bay, on the 
western side of it. (I cannot control my movements 
when travelling over the surface, but diverge here 
and there ; which is not as much the case under- 
ground.) After I get up there I go over the snow. 

" I do not know where I am now, but I am drenched 
with water, as if a flood had rolled over me." (She 
looked at the map of North America.) " I do not 
think they have mapped that accurately. I see a great 
chasm, — very large; a little beyond that, and to the 
right, a rock towers up perpendicularly to a great 
height. I see round snow huts, and men riding in 
sledges drawn by dogs of some kind. 

" I am among those icebergs, — stationary ones, how- 
ever, — and mountains of snow again. Those moun- 
tains of ice are magnificent. I see now a long break 
in them. They stand up on both sides like two walls ; 
and there is a long, straight opening through which I 
see for a great distance. . The sides are so even that it 
looks like a way cut through. There is water at the 
bottom. It widens as I go along. It is now a broad 
channel, and I can see the water move in it. As I go 
up, it moves down. How water can run there I do 
not see ; for there are mountains of ice on each side. 
There is a slope back from the water; then the ice 
rises in peaks. Now I come to a broad sheet of water ; 
I cannot see how broad. I am much farther west than 
I was before. I have come by a different route. It is 
difficult to go farther north. I see the same hazy 
appearance that I did before ; the same looking hills ; 



142 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

so far away that I can but just distinguish them. I 
have great difficulty in getting there. I keep coming 
back, and it requires great effort to go forward. There 
are hot springs in the sea, or inland near the sea. 
I see steam that rises from them. What a peculiar, 
yellowish, hazy light that is." 

FOURTH EXAMINATION. 

"I seem to be right there. There is the same 
singular light; the same hills and mountains. I am 
nearer than I was before. I see a volcano. I can 
imagine that to be the very pole itself, it looks so 
central. The rocks are more naked than I at first 
thought. I see spires of bare rocks, and nothing 
anywhere but hills and rocks. This side of it is a 
body of water, bounded on the south by mountains 
of ice and snow. It looks different, now that I am 
so much nearer. There is . the same' mellow, warm- 
looking light. Occasionally it seems colder than at 
other times. Sometimes it seems warm as summer. 
I see one or more streams. of water. One of them is 
as wide as the Ohio River at Cincinnati, but not 
nearly as deep. It runs over and through naked 
rocks; not in a channel like our rivers; but spreads as 
they slope back, washing the whole surface of the 
bare rock. I see several orifices, out of which smoke 
is issuing." 

The question of an open polar sea is one that, lias 
been frequently discussed, and many facts have been 
given in favor of it, especially by Dr. Kane. I was 
siir|)ii<c(| (in rending his Arctic Explorations, subso- 
quently to the previous experiment, to find how much 



MOSAIC FROM CICEEO'S VILLA, 143 

the account given by Mr. Morton resembles the de- 
scription given by Mrs. Denton, though she had never 
seen it. When an unbroken sheet of ice covered the 
sea to the east, west, and south, Mr. Morton com- 
menced his journey due north, over snow-drifts, and 
among icebergs, some of them more than a mile long. 
After travelling four days, they discovered a channel 
of open water, widening as they continued northward, 
the water of which was several degrees above the 
freezing point. Still continuing their journey north- 
ward, the ice on the side of the channel became rotten, 
and the snow wet and pulpy, until eventually they 
found the waves beating upon the naked rock, the 
channel having expanded into an iceless sea, which 
they viewed from a cliff of considerable height, and 
over which the wind blew from the north for thirty-six 
hours, and yet failed to bring down any ice ; indicating, 
most plainly an extensive open sea beyond. Supposing 
this to be true, we have yet to learn the cause of this 
remarkable condition of things. 

EXPERIMENT LX. 

The value of psychometry to the archeologist may be 
seen from the five following experiments, which were 
made as usual ; the specimen being unseen, and no 
knowledge of it given. 

A small piece of mosaic pavement, dug up at Cice- 
ro's villa, at Tusculum, on a hill near Frascabi, fifteen 
miles from Rome, and taken to England, October 15, 
1760. 

If we can obtain the influence of fishes, birds, and 
oeasts that existed millions of years ago, why not the 



144 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

influence of men who lived during the last few thou 
sand years, and thus glean facts of which the historian 
is profoundly ignorant ? Possibly, said I to myself, 
this little fragment was pressed by the foot of the 
great Roman orator ; and if not, it may have seen him, 
and treasured his likeness in its heart. I gave it to 
my sister Anne, not a word being said with regard to 
its character. 

" I see a dense forest. The trees are very high. 
Under them I see a mastodon, or something of that 
kind. I see its head more distinctly than I ever did 
before." (Come down to more modern times, I said.) 
" I see nothing now but what I might call a milk house, 
or more properly, perhaps, a grotto. There is a spring 
near it, and trees around it. I see a hill, and an old 
man walking round, who wears knee-breeches. A dog 
is with him that looks like a carriage-clog. There is a 
house near, — a large one. The place is evidently in 
the country. There is a large porch in front of the 
house, and gravel walks around it. The windows look 
large." (Describe the man.) "The man is not tall, 
He wears a dark blue, swallow-tailed coat, with brass 
buttons. His hair is long, and he looks as if he wore 
a wig or a cue. There are ruffles on his shirt, and he 
very ancient look. He has a prominent nose, is 
quick to perceive ; has large locality, and is benevo- 
lent. He is not proud, but has confidence enough in 
himself f<> be manly without being pompous. Consci- 
entiousness and cautioo are well developed, and lie has 
greal force and energy. Mis activity is connected in 
some way with benevolence. He Bits down upon a 
seat under the trees, and a tall lady stands near, talk- 



MOSAIC FEOM CICERO'S VILLA. 145 

ing to him. She is dressed in very ancient style ; 
short waist, long skirts, and no hoops ; and has a large 
collar on her neck. A girl about ten years of age 
stands near her. 

" Now there is a man walking up the steps in front 
of the mansion. He is dressed in modern style, with 
light vest, high hat, and long pants." 

These were scenes in this specimen's picture-gallery 
that I had not anticipated, and did not feel very much 
interest in. 

EXPERIMENT LXI. 

A few days afterward I gave the specimen to Mrs. 
Denton,- she knowing nothing of its history, or of my 
sister's examination of it. 

" I feel Anne's influence very strong. I see her 
holding this up to her forehead as I am doing. She 
must have examined it." 

She then desired to know what kind of impressions 
I wished from it. I answered, " Surface impressions." 

"At some distance from me I see a gravelly bank 
with trees near, and at a greater distance there are 
gentle swells. At the foot of the bank there is a 
stream. Now I see a cascade, not very high, but 
rather broad. (There is human influence about this.) 
I see the inside of a house, and several rooms. In one 
room is a bed, with a person lying on it. The person 
seems to be fifteen or sixteen years of age, and sick. 
The bed looks like a broad couch ; and the head of the 
person is elevated, owing to the bed being raised at 
one end, so as to give it a gradual slope. The place 
makes me feel gloomy. There seem to be many differ 
ent influences in this." 



146 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

SECOND EXAMINATION. 

Something occurred that prevented any further ex- 
amination at that time, and the specimen was laid 
away for two or three days, when the examination was 
continued. 

" I see a large building with stone steps going up, — 
six or eight of them ; there are high pillars in front of 
it. It looks like a public building, but differs from 
any I ever saw. A little way from it, I see another 
building ; there is something very magnificent about 
them. 

" I am now inside of some building. At one side of 
a room, in which I find myself, I see something high 
and round, covered with crimson velvet. Everything 
looks strange. I do not know how to describe what I 
see. The style of the building is entirely different 
from anything I ever saw, and so is the furniture, if 
furniture it may be called. I neither know what to 
call it, nor what use it is put to. I see carved work 
on the walls, but not very clearly, for the light is not 
sufficient to enable me. The windows are very high, 
and are either heavily curtained or stained, for the 
light does not appear to come through freely. 

" Now I see two pillars about eight feet high ; they 
stand near each other, and are adorned with beautiful 
carved work at the top and bottom; they seem made 
for ornament. I can hear some one in another part of 
the building. There are many persons here, but it is 
difficull for me to see them. I had a glimpse just then 
of ;i woman, or a man with a long robe on. Now I see 
a in hi who lookfl like a servant; he lias a dress that 
comes to his knees ; his pants are loose, and lie has a 



MOSAIC PEOM CICERO'S VILLA. 147 

kind of cloak on his shoulders. I could not see him 
distinctly enough to describe him. 

" Strange ! I see long lines of people standing side 
by side, but they vanish in an instant. They look like 
soldiers ; are all dressed alike, have on their heads a 
covering, high and pointed, and something in their 
hands. 

" I am now in the house again." (Try to find the 
owner.) "I see a tolerably fleshy man, with a broad 
face and blue eyes. At times he appears merry. He 
wears a dress that looks easy, something like a gown, 
but not as long as a gown. He is a man of a great 
deal of spirit; seems very resolute. What can he be? 
He is majestic, yet has a good deal of geniality about 
him, too. He regards himself as superior, and with- 
draws from others, though he does not seek to mani- 
fest it. It seems to me that he has something to do 
with those troops I saw, though that does not appear 
to be his life-work. He has a powerful brain." 

Was this the eloquent old Roman ? Probably not, 
for Cicero is said to have been tall and slender ; yet, a 
portion of the description is in harmony with what we 
know of him. His military talents, evinced when he 
was proconsul of Cilicia, would explain the appear- 
ance of the soldiers, and the feeling of superiority, spo- 
ken of, is in strict accordance with the character of the 
great Roman orator, whose vanity seems to have been 
his greatest failing. At all events, we have a descrip- 
tion in harmony with the time and people of the days 
of Cicero. 

Long after writing the above, I discovered, in the 
course f my reading, that Cicero's house in Tusculum 



148 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

had belonged, previous to his occupancy of it, to Cor- 
nelius Sulla Felix, or, as he is generally called, Sulla, 
the Dictator. The description given agrees better 
with what is recorded of him, than it does with what 
is recorded of Cicero. It is said of him that " he pos- 
sessed in the highest degree the art of winning the af- 
fection of his soldiers," that " his love of pleasure was 
greater than his love of power," and that " women, ac- 
tors, mimes, and buffoons were his favorite compan- 
ions to the last years of his life." 

Where specimens have taken in so many varied in- 
fluences, it is necessarily difficult to obtain any special 
one of which we may be in quest. A year's examina- 
tion would be none too much for a specimen of this 
kind. 

EXPERIMENT LXII. 

A small piece of marble, about the size of a pea, 
from the ancient Christian church of Smyrna. 

Mrs. Denton. She also examined the specimens in 
the next eighteen experiments. 

" A large stream of water is in sight. There is 
nothing around but wild scenery. (When I allow my 
mind to be diverted from the subject, everything is 
thrown into the greatest confusion.) 

" I am in a building, and at one side is a high plat- 
form, extending across it, I judge, and above it, a high 
window. The platform is not as wide as some I have 
seen, and il is higher up than platforms generally are. 
At, one end of i! there is a beautifully finished railing, 

wilh slops down. 

"There is an audience of some kind in the room. 
One person 1 see with something in his hand, that ex- 



MARBLE FROM CHURCH OF SMYRNA, 149 

tends above his head. It may be a musical instru- 
ment ; it is hollow, and bell-shaped at one end. The 
congregation seems earnest, as if they had something 
important on hand. All seem to have something to do. 
It is not like a common meeting; they listen atten- 
tively, and look enthusiastic ; their heads are bent for- 
ward. Some of those who sit evidently intend to say 
something. I cannot see the speaker. One man, who 
sits in front, is writing. There is good taste in the ar- 
rangement of the room, and much fine, beautiful work. 
It must have cost a great deal. It is large and spa- ' 
cious, and its general style is quite different from any- 
thing that I am familiar with. Off at one side are cur- 
tains, but I cannot tell how they are arranged. 

" Now I see a mass of moving people. What can 
that be they have on their heads? They are dressed 
differently from those I saw sitting, and differently 
from us. How much there is that I cannot describe! 
It passes before me with great rapidity, like a flying 
panorama.' 7 

second examination: 

Eight days afterward the examination was contin- 
ued. 

" I see a large body of people j there must be thou- 
sands of them. They stand in an oval form, their 
backs toward the interior, and their faces fronting me ; 
they are partially bent over. They have high, light 
caps on their heads, that are quite peculiar. In their 
hands are long spears with square shafts. Now, I see 
another body at a distance that come and join them. 
Each company has a banner ; they put them together 
and cross them. 

13* 



150 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

" I can see outlines of towers and buildings. One 
building of stone I notice in particular ; there is a 
door at the side of it. It does not look like a house ; 
it is heavy. There are trees off in one direction, and 
a pretty country. 

" I am now looking through an open door into a 
room, but cannot see far. There is a deep window, 
with a shade of some kind before it." 

What an interesting picture of the primitive Chris- 
tians this fragment of marble contains ! What ques- 
tions psychometry may be expected to answer in the 
future, about which theologians have been wrangling 
for centuries ! 

EXPERIMENT LXI1I. 

Small fragment of a flower in relief on the border 
of a garment, on a limestone slab, from Nineveh. 

" I see a square block of stone, and another on it 
placed there by artificial means. The edges are hewn 
off, and the stone has been cut for some special pur- 
pose, — prepared for something ornamental. 

" A great deal passes before me like lightning. I 
see several slabs lying in rows, but I cannot see them 
distinctly. I see another large slab, but I cannot see 
any of them connected with any particular structure. 

"Two or three times I have had a glimpse of a pil- 
lar on those limestone slabs that I first saw. Now I 
see a slender pillar; on one side are open places, like 
side-doors, but I cannot describe them properly. Past 
and presenl are greatly mixed in this specimen. I see 
fences and houses of the present, though a moment 
ago 1 seemed ages hack. 

u I am in a building that seems to have been used 



PORCELAIN TOWER, CHINA. 151 

as a temple. It is deserted, part of it broken down 
and gone ; and it seems like the ruins of some temple 
or place of worship. Trees seem to have grown all 
around, and even in it, they come up so before me. 
There seems to have been a great deal of labor ex- 
pended upon the building. At one door there is an 
opening, with two short pillars that seem to have been 
erected as ornaments to the entrance. There is a kind 
of railing that comes around to the door. It is a very 
large building, with apartments divided off by pillars 
and arches, where curtains probably hung." 

These descriptions are of course very fragmentary. 
We could have done much better if we could have 
had more favorable conditions. Many of these exper- 
iments were made at hotels, in the evening, after my 
lectures were over, and we were both much fatigued 
by the labors of the day. I present them merely as 
evidences of what may be accomplished by persons 
of means and leisure, and who have cultivated these 
wonderful powers from their youth. The imagination 
cannot overleap the eventual realization. 

EXPERIMENT LXIV. 

A small piece of the porcelain tower of China. 

" I am in a room. A little way from here there is a 
mound or elevation, very regular in shape, with a tree 
in the centre. I am in the room again. There is 
something peculiar in its style. It is massive, with 
dark-colored walls, adorned with carved work, that I 
cannot see very distinctly. It seems to be divided by 
curtains, and in connection with them there is beauti- 
ful carved and ornamental work. The room has raised 



152 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

seats, or narrow platforms, the whole length and on 
both sides. It seems to me to be in a different cli- 
mate from this; it must be farther south, for it is 
warmer, and the vegetation is more luxuriant. 

" I get the idea of a place used as a temple — a gor- 
geous, magnificent place. I feel that influence about 
it, irrespective of anything I have seen as yet. I go 
back into the room ; it is difficult to keep out. The 
sides are more clearly visible to me now ; they are 
gorgeously festooned with gilt leaves and flowers ar- 
ranged in clusters, with vines running from one to the 
other. What wealth it must have required to make 
such a temple as this ! 

"I obtain the influence of a people whose politics 
and religion are united ; both seem blended in this 
room. What crowds of people ! too many for me to 
individualize any of them. Now I see two or three 
more definitely. Their head covering strikes my at- 
tention; it is neither a hat nor a cap; I cannot describe 
it. It is crimson, I believe, and edged with gold leaf. 
I see other persons with caps on. 

" I see a place now where there are many dishes of 
silver and gold on a table. How rich this place is ! 
This is near the place where the religious ceremonies 
arc performed by priests or leaders. There is a 
small room or recess where they go in ; it is adorned 
with most elaborate carved work, and looks, altogether, 
much like a Catholic place of worship. I see some 
Bhining object extend from the ceiling to the floor. 
Broad steps lead to a place higher than my head; 
behind that is a platform, and behind that is another 
nomwilli figures in relief upon the wall. Every lit- 



POECELAIN TO WER, CHINA. 153 

tie while I see fire. On that platform I see two Urge 
urns. I see people again with something in their 
hands like flags. There is a pole eighteen or twenty 
feet high, with a turtle on the top, made of some kind 
of metal. 

" I am outside now, where there is a grove. I can 
see the whole building ; it goes up, then there is an 
open place with pillars, and a bell-shaped roof extend- 
ing over it; and so it goes up several stories, one 
above another, to a spire." 

At the time this examination was made I knew little 
more about the Porcelain Tower than the fact that a 
tower called by that name existed somewhere in China. 
But on reading an account of it in the Iconographic 
Encyclopedia, I found many of the previous statements 
remarkably verified. 

The walls appeared massive, and well they might ; 
for they are "twelve feet in thickness below, gradually 
reduced to eight feet at the top." It seemed to be 
" used as a temple," and it is a part of the Temple of 
Gratitude, near the City of Pekin, and was doubtless 
visited by multitudes of devotees, who left their influ- 
ence, as well as their offerings, behind them. 

The rooms were seen adorned with carving, gilding, 
and ornamental work; and it is stated that the walls 
of the room in this tower " are covered with fantastic 
painting, and bas-reliefs, and gilded throughout." 

All intelligent readers will perceive much in the 
above psychometric description in harmony with what 
we know of the Chinese and of this Tower ; and from 
the accuracy of this description we may see what may 
be done when the ruins of Copan and Uxmal, of 



154 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

Thebes and Karnak, and of cities and temples yet to 
be exhumed, shall be fully examined and their story 
faithfully translated and recorded. 

EXPERIMENT LXV. 

Old coin, probably Grecian. Specimen unseen by 
the psychometer, though its shape might possibly have 
given some idea of its character. 

" I seem to be looking through a stereoscope. Fig- 
ures look smaller than their real size. There are two 
houses that look like boxes or play-houses. There is 
one with a spire to it that is quite small also. I do 
not understand this appearance. The one with a spire 
looks larger now. One house has a round roof. It 
seems to be solid below and tent-like above, the roof 
made apparently of some soft material. I am up 
where I see the tops of things. 

" I am in a room now that seems strange. There is 
a box in it, having a trough proceeding from one cor- 
ner, and on the other side a double wheel. I see 
another' singular object, a small trough, with a wheel 
at one end, as if made to go by a current of water. 
The trough is inclined. Here is something hanging 
against the wall that has round figures stamped all 
over it. Some larger than this." (The coin was a 
copper one, about half an inch in diameter.) " This is 
one of the smaller ones. There is a plate of metal 
lying down that has the coins raised above its surface. 
There arc four or five sheets of metal standing near 
each other; they Beem to have beeD hammered rather 
than rolled. They lean againsl a frame on the side of 
the 1 oom. 



HORNSTONE, MOUNT OP OLIVES. 155 

"There is a large roundish vessel made of metal, 
with bands or ridges around it. It seems to be for 
melting metal. It stands in a metallic scalloped basin. 
There are holes all around the vessel, and grooves, that 
correspond with these, in the vessel in which it is set. 

" I see a solid body, with a bar attached to the cen- 
tre, that covers three impressions at one time. Just 
then I had a glimpse of some person." 

After the examination was over, she remarked that 
these impressions were not obtained from the surface 
of the coin, but from its heart. 

There is one great difficulty in these archaeological 
investigations ; and that is, in describing what is pre- 
sented to the vision. Much is presented that differs 
so widely from what the pyschometer is familiar with, 
that language is needed by which to describe the ob- 
jects seen to those who cannot behold them. Special 
education of psychometers for particular branches of 
investigation will, in time, remedy this defect. 

EXPERIMENT LXVT. 

Small piece of horns tone from the Mount of Olives, 
near Jerusalem. It was taken out of a box containing 
more than twenty specimens from various localities ; 
and during the early part of the examination I did not 
know what the specimen was, nor did Mrs. Denton 
know till the close of the experiment. 

"I see what looks like a projection of a partly de- 
molished breastwork. Near it is a rather tall and 
very solid-looking building, which seems to be square. 
From it a wall extends a long way, with buildings here 
and there for persons to go into ; they do not look 



156 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

large, but are very strong. Some of them are round, 
and 1 think they were built for strongholds in connec- 
tion with the wall. 

" I seem to be north-west of some large city. I am 
above it, a little to one side of the central portion, and 
I can look down upon the tops of buildings which are 
below me. There are some very fine buildings. I 
notice one particularly, that I judge to be a temple or 
some public building, which is near me. It has a 
round tower, but that is below me. The city seems 
in great commotion, a tide of people floAving through 
it. Its size is great ; for the influence as it comes up 
to me is very extensive. 

" The whole influence that I receive from this is 
entirely different from that of this country. The cli- 
mate is warmer. I can feel the' influence of the sea, 
but it is at some distance ; yet not so far but I can feel 
its soft breath. I consider the climate and country 
superior to ours, but the people are inferior. 

" I see a tent-shaped building of three stories, with 
pillars and spaces between, filled with lattice-work all 
round ; each story diminishes in size to the top. The 
building is large and round, but what it is used for I 
cannot tell. 

" I sec the entrance of a place that looks like a cul- 
vert, largo enough for a person to walk into. It appears 
to go underground for a considerable distance, but is 
caiiicd on the surface so far that it can be seen a long 
way off. 

" I led I Ik; influence of a stream of water, though I 
do not see it; it seems somewhat large, and runs I 
think to Mie south, with a pure stream over a clean 



HORNSTONE ; MOUNT OF OLIVES. 15T 

" I saw a grand ruin, but it vanished in an instant. 
Large blocks hung as if ready to fall. The very ruin 
was magnificent. 

" I see now a naked-looking mountain, that seems 
connected with a range ; there are green hills, too, on 
which are scattering trees. 

" I am in a building that seems like a city under 
cover. In one place is a high dome. In a room I see 
a long table, and upon it what seems to be a crown 
made of gold, and decked with precious stones ; and 
near it is a silver bowl. This room is beautifully or- 
namented with carved figures of various kinds. 

" The people live a good deal out of doors, for I see 
some kind of tables and seats outside of the houses, 
such as we nowhere see in this country. These people 
are not as well developed intellectually as we, though 
they are as well developed religiously, and are very 
ceremonious. The whole country seems permeated 
with the sentiment of worship. I have such a feeling 
as is described by the poet in the lines, — 

* The cedars of Lebanon bow at his feet, 
And the air is perfumed with his breath.' 

I should think the Bible might have been written here. 
What an excellent place for a ceremonious religion ! 
I cannot tell how I get this, but it breathes over me ; 
the atmosphere of the place seems full of this feeling. 
It produces a joyous, worshipful sentiment, about 
which there is nothing sad or gloomy. It recognizes 
joy in everything. One of the Psalms seems to give 
this feeling : l The mountains skipped like rams, and 
the little hills like lambs.' 



158 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

" Now, I have a sense of destruction and desolation, 
that contrasts most strangely with the other. It seems 
like another age and another place, the feeling is so 
different." (I said, " Go as far back in time as you can 
within the human period.") 

" I obtain the influence of a people whose principal 
business seems to be looking after their flocks that feed 
on the hills. They seem to have no idea beyond the 
present life. The country is wild, and the people live 
in groups of relatives ; this must be the patriarchal 
time. They are not energetic, but fully occupied 
with their employments. 

" My opinion is that this is from the neighborhood 
of some city on the Asiatic continent, between the 
twentieth and fortieth parallels of N. latitude." 

Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, is about thirty- 
three miles from the Mediterranean, and half that dis- 
tance from the Dead Sea. The Mount of Olives, on 
which the specimen of hornstone was found, is a moun- 
tain or ridge lying to the east of Jerusalem, from 
which it is separated by the valley of Jehoshaphat. 
The elevation of the central peak of the Mount of 
Olives is stated by Schubert at 2,556 Paris feet, or 416 
Paris feet above the valley of Jehoshaphat ; and hence 
it appears to be 175 Paris feet above the highest part 
of Mount Zion. 

The summit of the Mount of Olives is about half a 
mile cast from the city, which it completely overlooks, 
every considerable edifice and almost every house 
being visible. Hence the feeling that she was " above 
the city," and could "look down upon the tops of the 
buildings." 



HORNSTONE, MOUNT OF OLIVES. 159 

The wall surrounding the city, and the towers upon 
the wall, seem to have been the first objects presented, 
and very naturally so. For many centuries they must 
have been one of the most striking features on looking 
at the city from the Mount of Olives. The tall, square, 
and very solid-looking building was, probably, the 
tower of Hippicus, which, Josephus says, was a quad- 
rangular structure, twenty-five cubits, or about forty 
feet, on each side, and built up entirely solid to the 
height of thirty cubits. The altitude of the whole 
tower was eighty cubits, or about 128 feet. At the 
present time it is styled the tower of David, and is 
near the centre of the west side of the city. This 
tower, and the towers of Phasselus and Mariamne, were 
left standing by Titus when Jerusalem was taken and 
destroyed by the Romans. The buildings that she 
saw upon the walls were doubtless towers or turrets, 
of which Josephus says there were on the outer wall 
ninety, on the middle wall forty, and on the inner 
wall sixty ; though the number is very much smaller 
now.* 

The tent-shaped building, and the building that 
seemed like a city under cover, refer, I think, to the 
Armenian Convent, which is one of the largest, if not 
the largest establishment in the city. It occupies 
several acres, and is capable of entertaining 8,000 
pilgrims. 

Those acquainted with the situation of the Mount of 
Olives will see that a mistake was made with regard to 
its situation, which is stated to be north-west of the 
city, instead of north-east. What part of the Mount of 

*Kitto's Biblical Cyclopedia, articles Mount of Olives and Jerusalem. 



160 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

Olives the specimen was brought from, I have been 
unable to learn. 

How strange that a flint pebble, on a hill outside of 
the city, could become imbued with the worshipful 
spirit of the people who lived in it ! How much more 
must houses and churches be imbued with the spirit of 
the people who live and worship in them. 

EXPERIMENT LXVIL 

Piece of red damask that hung over the speaker's 
chair in the House of Representatives, Washington, 
when that city was taken by the British in 1814. It 
was taken to England, and then a piece of it brought 
back to the United Sates. 

Specimen seen, but nothing known of its history. 

" I see a long hall. I seem to be at one end of it. 
Straight before me is an opening like an aisle ; it is 
wider, however, than I should suppose an aisle to be. 
It seems to be an open space where I am, and, I think, 
semicircular. I feel higher up than the objects around 
me. I see a short curtain above a raised place or plat- 
form, and, if such a thing would be allowed, I could 
fancy this had been cut from that curtain. 

" There is activity of some kind here ; something is 
being done. There seems to be more than one ope- 
rating in some .way. Persons move in and out, but I 
cannot yet understand what their business is. They 
become visible, and then seem to go behind an open 
place on the platform at the end where I am. 

"There is a table, or something like it, and persons 
come to it and do something and then retire. There 
is a curtained recess at each end of the platform. 



HALL OF REPRESENTATIVES, WASHINGTON. 161 

The persons officiating on the platform seem to have 
something to do distinct from the others. 

" The hall is large, and all about is on a large scale. 
There is an air of general magnificence about it. The 
influence of this place is very different from what I 
perceive in churches ; there is not that solemnity 
about it, but an air of cheerfulness, and, at times, even 
of merriment. 

" Something is placed in front of me that shuts out 
my sight of the hall. It has representations on it of 
figures with different colors ; it seems like a painting 
on canvas. 

" One person comes from the right-hand side to the 
table, raises up what looks like a spread, and puts 
something under it. I see a door open." 

SECOND EXAMINATION. 

A second examination was made about a week after 
the first, nothing more being known by the psychom- 
eter regarding the specimen than the previous exam- 
ination had developed. 

" I think I know what this place is now ; I see ob- 
jects more clearly than before. It is a council cham- 
ber or hall. The person who comes out lays a paper 
on the table ; he lifts up something and puts it under. 
These seem like people that I am acquainted with. It 
seems almost or quite like our own times. There is a 
great deal of earnestness of feeling here. 

" I see seats with something up before them in front 
of each person ; what they can be for I cannot imag- 
ine. I now see they are for papers and writing. I 
have seen pictures of places like this. 



162 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

" They have something up for discussion now thai 
is very amusing ; awhile ago they were quite grave. 
They seem as changeable as an April sky. There are 
some who profess to feel very much, but I can see 
their earnestness is mere sham. They talk very glibly, 
but it is mere talk. It is sickening to contemplate 
them. 

" There seems to be a gallery here ; and those in 
the gallery take no active part in what goes on below ; 
but they listen with attention, and some are amused, 
while others look on with admiration. 

" Now there is a great concourse of people outside. 
It must be some political gathering, celebration, or 
something of that kind. I see several marshals. 
There is a platform, and speakers on it, and a large . 
flag at one side of it ; there are red and white stripes 
on it, I see. I see some long, broad steps, but cannot 
tell where they are." (What place do you think it 
is ?) "I think it is the capitol of some state, or else 
of the nation." 

Little thought the members of that house that the 
damask hanging over the speaker's chair was such an 
attentive observer of their doings ; that it was report- 
ing their proceedings with greater accuracy than the 
clerk, and looking into their hearts like an all-seeing 
eye. Little supposed that smirking hypocrite that, 
though he was deceiving his follows, and receiving 
the plaudits of the crowd for his mercenary eloquence, 
the curtain waving before him was reading his inmost 
soul, and preparing to transmit to the future a faithful 
statement of his true condition. What a cloud of wit-i 
surround us on every side at all times-! There 



MELROSE ABBEY. 163 

is no darkness so dense but their keen eyes can pierce; 
there is no sound so feeble but they catch and hold 
it forever. No bribes can suborn, no eloquence can 
move them from their purpose ; no lawyer can break 
them down. The brick can reveal the character of 
the occupants of the house, and tell tales that may 
make the haughty cower and tremble. Bury it in the 
ocean, and it still carries along, and will keep for ages, 
what has been committed to its trust. Break it to 
pieces, and you have but multiplied it ; for every frag- 
ment, equally with the whole, can tell the tale. 

EXPERIMENT LXVI1I. 

Piece of Sandstone from the walls of Melrose Abbey, 
Scotland. Specimen unseen, and nothing known re- 
garding it. 

"I stand within a very large building, in which 
there are several persons. On one side a gentleman 
is just going through an arched doorway ; he seems a 
long way off, the building is so large. I see a semi- 
circular place, but cannot imagine what it is -for. This 
building is- on a magnificent scale, very lofty and spa- 
cious. The windows are deep. (I obtain glimpse 
after glimpse, which vanish in an instant.) In another 
part of the building is a large aisle, and at the end of 
it a very high place, richly ornamented, which is sep- 
arated from the rest of the aisle by a curtain. It 
seems intended for persons to go upon. Architecture 
and sculpture have lavished their resources upon it. 
There is some stone about it, but whether it is all 
stone or not I cannot tell. How massive it is, and 
how elaborately worked ! no place is plain. There is 



164 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

some design or other wherever it is possible. The 
very railings are carved, and everything is beautifully 
figured. 

" I see what looks like the corner of a building on 
the outside, with the sun shining upon it ; it looks as 
natural as if here before, me. 

" Xow I see Gothic windows ; one that looks like 
three united together. There seem to be hills near 
here. 

" I can only see detached parts of this building ; it 
is impossible for me to get the connected whole." 

SECOND EXAMINATION. 

A second examination was made nearly three 
months afterward. There was nothing known regard- 
ing the specimen, nor was Mrs. Denton aware that she 
had ever examined it before. 

" I am inside of a building, and can see a corner of 
it on the outside. It is of stone, and singularly notched 
and uneven. I see three arches side by side; but this 
seems to be a night scene, and things are very indis- 
tinct. I see in this way two domes, and a high pillar 
standing by itself on a pedestal that appears to consist 
of slabs, the broadest at the base. 

" Inside of the building I see a great heap of rub- 
bish, as if it had been cleared from one place and 
deposited in another. Where it lias been cleared away 
I see whal looks like the Support to a floor. The build- 
ing seems filled up to a great extent with rubbish. It 
musl be a ruin. 1 see objects occasionally, and when 
I look again they an- •_ 

"1 am in a place now where the beams overhead 



MELROSE ABBEY. 165 

are placed so as to make figures. I think this is a 

place of worship. (I can feel much better than see.) 

I have a sense of enthusiasm in connection with the 

worshippers that reminds me of the early Christian 

times. These people are ignorant and bigoted, but 

very zealous. There seems to be a contention going 

i on between them and others. When they meet here 

i their zeal is enkindled and their spirits renewed, so 

that they feel strong to resist the opposition they meet 

r with, which is greater than religious people meet with 

at present, in our country at least. The religious 

strife between them and some other party is great. 

Here they feel at home to speak and plan. They 

e have confidence in each other. 

.; " I seem to be present at one of their conferences. 
I One says, in substance, ' We must wage this warfare 
to the bitter end;' another, ' We must meet them on 
) their own ground.' One quite sedate old man says, 
[ [ 1 am prepared for anything in this matter.' There is 
^another party, less bitter in their opposition, who are 
[inclined to take things more moderately. I cannot 
learn what the subject is they refer to." 

From the Parliamentary Gazetteer, of Scotland, we 
learn that Melrose Abbey, at the foot of the Eildon 
.,Hills, in Scotland, and the most beautiful of all the ec- 
clesiastical edifices ever reared in that country, was 
founded by David I. in 1136. It was destroyed by fire, 
and rebuilt and decorated during the two centuries 
extending from 1326 to the Reformation. " The vast 
i magnificence of the abbey, with its innumerable ad- 
juncts and sculptured adornings, seems to have been 
[the result of a constant, untiring and ambitious effort 



166 TEE SOUL OF THINGS. 

of the resident monks, powerful in their skill, their 
numbers, their leisure, and their enthusiasm." 

u At the junction of the south and west members of 
the cross, a hexagon tower rises, terminating in a pin- 
nacle roofed with stone, highly ornamented ; from 
thence the aisle is extended so as to receive three 
large windows, whose arches are pointed, each di- 
vided by three upright bars or mullions, the tracery 
various and light." 

What a beautiful description of this structure we 
have in Scott's " Lay of the Last Minstrel : " — 

" The moon on the east oriel shone, 
Through slender shafts of shapely stone, 

By foliaged tracery combined ; 
Thou wouldst have thought some fairy hand 
'Twixt poplars straight the osier wand 
In many a freakish knot had twined, 
Then framed a spell when the work was done, 
And changed the willow wreath to stone." 

The description given by Mr. Hutchinson of the in- 
terior of the building, which is quoted by the Parlia- 
mentary Gazetteer, agrees very well with that given 
by Mrs. Denton. He says, " The floor is nothing but 
the damp earth j nastiness and irregularity possess the 
whole scene." 

Are there any facts connected with the history of 
Melrose Abbey that would account for the strife that 
was felt in connection with its occupants? I think 
there are, for we learn from the same authority that 
" In L269, John, of Edenham, the abbot, and many of 
big conventual brethren, for the crime of violating (he 
peace of W&dale, attacking sonic houses of the bishop 



ROCK OF GIBRALTAR. 167 

of St. Andrews, and slaying one ecclesiastic and 
wounding many others, were excommunicated by a 
provincial council that sat in Perth; and as Melrose 
stood near the hostile border, it was usually involved 
in the rancorous events of border feud and interna- 
tional war. In 1285 the Yorkshire barons, who had 
confederated against King John, swore fealty to Alex- 
ander II. in Melrose chapter house. 

" In 1322, at the burning and desolating of the ab- 
bey by Edward II., William de Peebles, the abbot, and 
several of the monks were slain. During the reigns of 
Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Elizabeth, it suffered 
collisions and dilapidations, chiefly from the English." 

So that what was seen and felt may be readily ex- 
plained by what must have taken place in the history 
of this remarkable structure and its possessors, during 
these troublesome times. 

EXPERIMENT LXIX. 

Piece of stalagmitic limestone from the Eock of Gib- 
i raltar. 

Specimen unseen, and nothing known regarding it. 
jit was not known that I possessed any specimen from 
I the locality. 

" I see down, down ; three apartments, one below 
\ another, but not all in a direct line. In the second I 
-see three men, who seem to be considering the place 
and talking of its history, which they regard as worthy 
j of note in some way. I think it has been a place of 
great interest. What interest it possesses now, seems 
more in consequence of what it has been than of what 
it is." 



168 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

SECOND EXAMINATION. 

Conditions as before. 

" I am looking from a small opening out upon the 
landscape, which has quite a stereoscopic appearance ; 
there are hills, and water beyond. I see a very high 
hill, with a large notch in the face of it, about half-way 
up; it is very wild, and yet very beautiful. This 
country is both hilly and rocky. I see cliffs every- 
where. I am surprised that any one should live here, 
it is so rocky, uneven, and naked. • 

" I am now at the foot of a great hill of rock. What 
a strange-looking place ! It is very rugged in places, 
and in others smooth. A steep, rough road leads up 
the hill on one side. I cannot conceive how people 
get down without sliding. 

" I feel the influence of a body of water, which 
seems to come in here and form a kind of bay, and 
then at a distance communicates with a larger body of 
water. 

" On the top of the rock is a round, castellated 
structure, which is, I think, on the highest point. It 
is too extensive a building for a light-house. It has a 
somewhat ancient look." 

THIRD EXAMINATION. 

u This place sustains a relation in some way to other 
distant places, but what that relation is I cannot tell. 
I cannot see any physical connection, yet I sense influ- 
ences passing from here, and coming from some 
distant place fco this. I see what looks like a long, 
winding road, that extends to a largo town; it is 
crowded with people. 



ROCK OF GIBRALTAR. 169 

" I see the same castellated structure that I saw be- 
fore. This is a picturesque country. I seem to feel 
the influence of the sea, though I do not know the dis- 
tance to it. On one side it seems to come very near. 
There is a large town near here ; indeed, it surrounds 
me, I think ; but more of it on one side of me than on 
the other. There are winding ways all round, that 
give it quite a romantic appearance. 

" There is something remarkable about the people 
of this country; they are intellectually strong, and 
yet they cling tenaciously to the old. There is great 
independence and daring, yet great veneration for an- 
cient forms. They possess a warlike spirit. There 
does not seem to be any war in the country now, but 
they have the disposition to resist encroachment by 
the sword, if need be. There is nothing cringing 
about them ; what they do is done because they will, 
and not because they must. I have seen in the Eng- 
lish character something like it. 

" I can partly see and partly feel chains of moun- 
tains, back in the country ; they are not long, but 
there seem to be several of them. I feel the influence 
of the sea extending on both sides almost round the 
country. It may go all round, but I do not see it. 

" I obtain the influence of very heavy structures. I 
thought at first that they were walls, but they are not. 
I think they are massive structures of some kind; they 
might be called fortifications ; they are intended to 
protect the place from the attacks of enemies. They 
extend for a considerable distance. I seem to be more 
connected with these fortifications than I am with the 
city. It seems as if the approach of the enemy was 



170 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

by water ; I can hear the report of cannon booming 
over it. The people are so resolute, determine d, and 
strong that a powerful force would be necessary to 
overcome them ; I should not like to be one of the at- 
tacking party. 

" I am in a building now in which there are many 
apartments. (I seem to be in the past.) In one of 
them many persons of high rank are assembled, and on 
a large raised place sits a lady, who, from her appear- 
ance, must be a queen. Those persons are present- 
ing something for her consideration; it is evidently 
something important. They are all richly dressed, and 
she is gorgeously arrayed. I do not know that this is 
the same place as before, but it seems connected with 
it in some way. Now, all have vanished. 

" There has bee-n much suffering in this vicinity, es- 
pecially mental suffering; the people have been cursed 
by tyrants. 

" This is not Switzerland, though it is rough and 
mountainous. It does not seem far enough south for 
Italy ; it is not far enough inland for Germany ; it is 
too mountainous for England, and it is not an island. 
It seems like Scotland in many respects, but I cannot 
really tell what country it is. It seems longer than 
wide, though there is a part stretching to the east and 
>o utl icast that I cannot see. It is in Europe some- 
where." 

On turning to the map of the world, after some con- 
sideration, she covered, with the head of a pin, the 
spot where Gibraltar was marked. "That," said she, 
•' seems to be about the place where I was." 

The following description, taken principally from 



ROCK OF GIBRALTAR. 171 

the Encyclopedia Britannica, will show the accuracy of 
many of the previous statements. Gibraltar, a British 
town and fortress, in the most southerly province of 
Spain, stands on the extremity of a small peninsula, 
washed on the east side by the Mediterranean, and 
west by the Bay of Gibraltar. The top of Europa 
Point, the southern extremity of the rock, is sur- 
mounted by a fine light-house. 

This may have been the tower seen, or O'Hara's 
Tower, which was built upon a portion of the rock 
1480 feet above the level of the sea. Originally it 
was intended for a signal station and light-house, but 
being struck by lightning, is now a ruin. On the 
western side of the rock the hill slopes gradually to 
the sea. On this slope stands the town of Gibraltar, 
containing about 15,000 inhabitants. The town is con- 
nected with the isthmus by a narrow causeway, in the 
defence of which science has exhausted its resources. 
The most remarkable of the defences of Gibraltar are 
the galleries, excavations cut out of solid rock, with 
great difficulty and immense expense ; they are two or 
three miles long, and broad enough to allow carriages 
to pass. 

Gibraltar has been in the possession of the Sara- 
cens, Spaniards, and English ; being taken and retaken 
many times. During the years 1779-1783 it was be- 
sieged by the combined land and sea forces of France 
and Spain. On the side of the sea they brought to 
bear against it forty-four sail of the line, and a count- 
less fleet of gun and mortar boats, and numerous float- 
ing batteries, but in vain ; though the besieged suf- 
fered for years the horrors of disease and famine. 



172 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

It is unnecessary for me to point out all the points 
of agreement between what was seen, and what is 
known of Gibraltar and its history. Those who wish 
to examine this subject thoroughly, would do well to 
read and judge for themselves. Many of the state- 
ments made were entirely new to me, and it was only 
after considerable research that I was able to verify 
some of them. 

I know of no time in the past when a connection ex- 
isted between Gibraltar "and the court of Spain, likely 
to lead to the vision recorded of a queen and persons 
of high rank. I give it, because it came up spontane- 
ously, and future research may shed light upon this 
also. 

EXPERIMENT LXX. 

A square of mosaic from the baths of Caracalla, near 
Rome. Specimen unseen and unknown. 

" I am in a very large building. Directly in front 
of me is a large circular structure, built as if there 
were a fountain in there, or a bath for water. It 
is quite high and round. To come in here I went up 
some steps on the other side, and down some steps on 
this. The two rooms are separated by what looks 
like a half partition wall. The room with the vat in 
it is, I think, a little lower than the other. 

" Now that I am lower and nearer to it, I see the 
structure which contains the water is cither square or 
Dearly so: and has a circular basin in the centre, with 
a beautifully ornamented rim. The baseof the square 
structure lias two broad steps passing all round; and 
on one corner of the base 1 see an immense pitcher, 
which rises higher than the top of the. basin. On an- 



BATHS OF CARACALLA. 173 

other corner is a large urn, standing on a massive 
base. The handles are richly ornamented. On an- 
other corner is the figure of a beautiful naked boy. 
It looks like a Cupid. All these figures seem to be 
chiselled out of stone, and rise to about an equal 
height. On the rim of the basin is a bird that looks as 
if stooping to drink ; and the whole rim is ornamented, 
except where there are steps that rise from the base 
up to it, apparently for persons to walk up and go into 
the water. It must be a bath. What skilful artists 
they must have been to cut stone in this manner ! 

" In one part of the room I see a large pillar richly 
ornamented. Above the base the pedestal has figures 
upon it in relief; the shaft is fluted, and the capital 
is richly adorned. An arch passes over from it to a 
similar pillar. 

" I see something now that is difficult to describe. 
It is about three feet long, two feet wide, and three 
feet high. It stands upon a block about a foot thick, 
and is rounded the whole length, bulging out in the 
middle. It is hollow, and has over the top a dish with 
a rim about three inches wide. It is made of stone, 
and looks quite symmetrical. 

" The influence of this room is that of great gayety 
and voluptuousness. This influence is very strong, 
and I feel as if it must have been frequented by men 
and women, who, at certain times, laying aside all re- 
straint, abandoned themselves to the intoxication of 
pleasure and sensual enjoyment. 

" I go outside of the building, and see a very large 
and high pillar, or tower, with something like bands 
around it. It is some distance off. The streets seem 

15* 



174 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

narrow and the buildings high ; but I do not yee them 
clearly. 

" I am in the room again, and see the upper part of 
one corner, which is richly ornamented. On the sides 
of the wall are varying appearances, but I cannot dis- 
tinguish them. I see also a stand, apparently made of 
stone, ornamented also ; there are lamps upon it." 

This must have been, I think, one of the private 
bath-rooms, of which there were several, in the mag- 
nificent Thermse of Caracalla. 

Sixteen hundred years have passed, probably, since 
these pictures were impressed on the mosaics of the 
bath-room ; sixteen hundred years since the influences 
of the voluptuous Romans that frequented it were com- 
municated to them, yet how distinctly they remain, and 
probably would for as many thousands or millions of 
years; and thus are we recording our histories, im- 
pressing our mental and moral conditions on our sur- 
roundings, to be read by the coming ages. 

EXPERIMENT LXXL 

Out of nearly two hundred specimens of various 
kinds, from different parts of the world, wrapped up in 
paper, Mrs. Denton took one, no one knowing which it 
was. She said : — 

" 1 seem to oscillate between the city and a coun- 
try which is rough and rocky. The buildings in the 
city are high, and the streets being narrow, they look 
dark. There is a good deal of grandeur about it. 
The people seen] to be busy,and move about as if they 
bad greal interest in what is going on. It is not 
merely an interest in physical matters, either. Thcro 



MODERN MOSAIC FROM ROME. 175 

seem to be two or three influences in this, somewhat 
different from our own time. 

" Now, I seem to be in a long room of a large build- 
ing. At one end the ceiling comes down lower, and is 
supported by pillars or columns, some of which have 
broad capitals that are ornamented with deeply-cut 
figures. 

"I see a large temple. I am standing, I think, in 
front of it. The entrance is at some distance, under a 
grand archway ; there are stone steps in front going 
up for some distance. This end of the building seems 
much higher than the other. After passing through 
the door, I see a part of a very rich building. It seems 
to be a place of a great deal of ceremony. I feel the 
influence of persons about, but they are not as much 
here as in other parts. The impression I receive from 
this place comes nearer to my idea of a Jewish syna- 
gogue than any other building. I feel the influence 
of priests with long robes on. What a great deal of 
ceremony there is ; but I do not obtain a very strong 
sense of devotion. They seem to have lost the true 
devotion in the form of it. 

" On one side is a place that, I judge, is for the 
priests. All the work about it seems plain, but grand. 
There are no little ornaments ; but all is substantial. 
A great effect seems to be produced here by different 
colors ; but it does not seem like paint. I cannot tell 
what it is. It seems to be inherent in the material 
itself. In one place I see gold color; seems pure 
enough to be gold itself. There are either precious 
stones, or something resembling them. If artificial, 
there is a great deal of purity about them. 



176 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

" I see three places that seem made for persons to 
stand in. They are near each other, yet separated. 
Persons seem to stand in them and talk to some one 
on the other side. I believe this is a Catholic place of 
worship, after all. I feel that influence now. Yes, 
that is it. There is a place connected with this that is 
very little ornamented, and seems gloomy. It is very 
massive and prison-like. I see a great many people 
outside. From this I obtain an idea of what may be 
done in architecture with sufficient means." 

On examining the paper in which the specimen had 
been wrapped, I found it marked " Modern Mosaic, 
Rome." From what part of the Eternal City it came, 
I am sorry to say, I do not know. 

EXPERUIEXT LXXU. 

Marble from temple of Serapis. Specimen unseen 
and unknown. 

" I see the ruins of a building which must have been 
very extensive, or there was more than one. It was a 
magnificent structure. I can feel the influence of per- 
sons who have visited it. There is a feeling of rever- 
ence associated with it, which seems to have been felt 
by the visitors. There are long, large pillars pros- 
trated, and what look to me like beams. I see stone- 
work about a foot high enclosing a paved space that 
to have been a yard at the back of one part of 
tin; building. It forms an arc of a circle. There is a 
great pillar standing; the only one that I can see 
erect. I obtain the shadowy form of the original 
building; there arc man)' parts to it. The country 
low. I see water at a distance; I think it must 



TEMPLE OF SERAPIS. 177 

be a sea of some kind; it hardly seems the ocean, 
for I feel the influence of land on the other side of it, 
though it is broad. I think there is a river near here 
too. 

" Now I see ruins again. There seem to be huts 
here, or low, poor buildings ; they look very mean by 
the side of this. I see animals that seem very inti- 
mate with the people. (This view seems recent.) 
The people are singular, and considerably removed 
from us. They seem quite out of place here. If they 
are of the same race as the builders of this structure, 
they have sadly degenerated. 

" The surface here seems changeable ; at one time 
level, and then hilly and uneven. Wandering tribes 
of half-civilized people have passed over here occa- 
sionally. The ruins look as if they were buried part 
of the time ; being covered and uncovered alter- 
nately." 

The ruins of this celebrated temple are near Puz- 
zuoli, in Italy, on a low terrace near the Mediterra- 
nean Sea. It has been much visited, and has excited 
great geological interest from the fact, that three of its 
pillars now standing, only one of which was seen, bear 
evidence to the sinking and uprising of the coast on 
which they stand. It was below the level of the sea, 
then elevated ; and, as Lyell says, " Showers of vol- 
canic ashes, and materials washed in during storms, 
covered up the pillars to the height, in some places, of 
thirty-five feet above the pavement." It sank again 
below the level of the sea, and was again elevated ; 
but is said to be sinking now. Alaric and his Goths 
sacked Puzzuoli in 456, and G-enseric in 545. These 



178 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 






may be what are referred to as the " wandering tribes 
of half-civilized people/' that passed over there. 



EXPERIMENT LXXJU. 



A fragment of fresco painting from " Cicero's House/' 
Pompeii. Examined under the same conditions as in 
the last experiment. 

" I obtain a mixture of objects. I see a deep win- 
dow in a thick partition wall, but there is no glass in 
it. I notice small statues and colored images of dei- 
ties upon the walls, that are very numerous and varied. 
On a level with that window are pilasters with square 
capitals. (The place I am in seems to be low.) On 
one side of the apartment in which I am, is a balus- 
trade, which divides off a portion of it ; that may be 
for a couch or bed. Through an arched opening I see 
the shadowy form of a man, and now another one with 
something peculiar on his head. Both sit on something 
quite high, compared with the height of the place. 
They sit with their feet up in some way. The first I 
saw is beckoning to some one. The men's dresses are 
full; not tight, as men's are now. I see a head occa- 
sionally that does not seem real. (There are hills at 
one side of this place.) What I see is more elaborate 
than I can describe ; there is too much for me to indi- 
vidualize. 

" Now I am in a darker room, that is very beautifully 
adorned. In the centre of it is a structure built up and 
ornamented; there are steps to it. I obtain the influ- 
ence of a place when; they worshipped idols. The 
walls seem fill] of that influence. 

" I have passed to a large room where there are piL 



FRESCO PAINTING, POMPEII. 179 

lars ; the work about them seems heavy. The walls 
are all decorated with those figures ; they are well 
done for their style, which I do not much admire. 
These people care much more about art than wor- 
ship. 

"I see a great concourse of people; but they are 
shadowy. They seem to be in columns. There is a 
chariot with one man in the centre of a multitude. 
They go into a large hall, and then out again. They 
preserve a regular order and are united to each other 
in some way. They seem to be drawing something. 
Some carry lances in their hands, and some have sharp- 
pointed head-pieces. I think they must be a fighting 
people ; but there is a great love of merriment in their 
nature. It shows itself in these processions. In an 
engagement with the enemy, even, I should expect 
them to manifest it to some extent. There is consider- 
able solidity about them too. They are fond of music. 
They think a great deal of woman, but do not treat 
her as an equal. Among the masses the women seem 
coarse. They are out of doors a good deal, and doing 
what we should consider man's business. This seems 
to be a war time, and the women seem to feel a great 
deal of interest in it, and would do the meanest kind 
of services to assist the men in carrying on the war. 
They seem to feel that there is much at stake, and 
they must help. I think they are preparing for battle, 
and the men I saw must have been soldiers. 

" The street from here goes straight for some dis- 
tance, and then becomes very crooked ; farther on it 
seems to have been made for the convenience of the 
scattered houses, and goes from one to the other." 



180 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

EXPEEIMEXT LXXIV. 

I was disappointed in the previous examination; 
twice before I had tried specimens from Pompeii, but 
without anything being said of the terrible catastrophe 
that overwhelmed this beautiful city, which I supposed 
would have been presented at once. I had in my pos- 
session a portion of volcanic tufa obtained from the 
excavations at Pompeii, and this I thought would be 
more likely to give the particulars of its destruction. 
It was not larger than a small bean, but quite large 
enough to contain a psychometric volume, as will be 
seen. All knowledge was carefully concealed from 
the psychometer, who was also still unaware of the 
locality from which the previous specimens had been 
obtained. 

" I see colored figures on a wall. 

" Now, I see a yard, but it differs from all I ever saw 
before. It is diamond-shaped, with the corner in front 
of me. I feel the influence of something back of me j 
it seems like a building. It is a very heavy structure. 
I do not see it, but I feel its influence behind and on 
each side of me. This comes from some old country ; 
the influence is ancient. It reminds me of Dickens' 
song of the Ivy Green, 

' That creepeth o'er ruins old/ 

One side of tin's building looks out on the water; it 
may be the sen, for I feel the influence of some large 
body of water. The side of the building next to the 
water, and 1 think another side, have square towers 
rising up. I hear the rustling of long, heavy curtains 
in the building. 



VOLCANIC TUFA, POMPEII. 181 

" Tn front of ine, and to my left hand 7 the view is all 
shut out, and I have been trying for some time to find 
out the cause. It seems as if there was a great moun- 
tain, so high that I have to elevate my head to see the 
top of it. The abrupt rise of the ground here seems 
to have caused that yard to be made in the peculiar 
shape it is. That mountain looks volcanic, and there 
are smoke, and stones, and cinders, and dust, all issu- 
ing from it in a dense body. They are thrown up 
with such force that, for a great distance, they form 
a perpendicular column, resembling somewhat a tall 
chimney, and then spread out on all sides. The moun- 
tain seems a hollow shell to a vast depth, the crater at 
the top being merely an orifice of small dimensions 
compared with the great cavern in the interior. The 
mountain has two peaks, the lower one much smaller 
than the other, but much sharper. I have been stand- 
ing in the space between them, and I now go up a lit- 
tle higher. I hear the mountain bellow. What a depth 
that comes from! The influences that produce this 
eruption seem different from any I ever felt before. 
How strange it seems that I did not see this at first ; 
for now everything seems so insignificant compared 
with it. The amount vomited out is immense. It is 
not like lava, but spreads out in a great black cloud, 
that rolls over and over and covers the country like a 
flood. I can hardly believe that what I see is correct. 
It looks as if it would bury everything all around it. 
What a sight ! There it goes, pouring, spreading, 
foaming, as it rolls down the mountain-side in great 
black waves. It seems to me there is water too, run- 
ning down the side of the mountain. At first all 

16 



182 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

seemed dry ; but now the mountain belches out water 
that sweeps everything before it. It is washing away 
the cinders and ashes that it previously threw out. 1 
see the water rush through the cleft between the 
lower and upper peaks, and sweep a vast amount of 
material down. What a desolation it spreads over the 
land ! It is not a dash and then over, but it continues 
to pour out for a long time. The lower part of the 
mountain seems entirely buried. It appears to extend 
for several miles, and makes it seem like night, it is so 
dense and dark. There are occasional flashes that 
look like lightning, and others that are not as evanes- 
cent, seen through that dense cloud. They seem to 
be caused by irregular bodies of fiery matter shot up 
from the crater. I can think of nothing but electricity 
that could produce the tremendous force necessary to 
eject this material to such a height that it falls miles 
away." (Go below and see how it affects the country.) 
" There is utter ruin to everything below. I do not 
see any place at the bottom. It is a great barren 
field; or rather an immense desert of cinders and 
dust everywhere. (I do not feel the heat that I ex- 
pected.) I cannot recognize any place. There is 
nothing visible that was there before. Even the 
water for a long way looks converted into land, being 
covered with a deep, dark scum of this same material. 
" I feel the influence of human terror that I cannot 
describe; it is awful. I see no one; but the feeling- 
is almost overpowering. I feel like screaming. There 
are many different sensations commingled; but there 
is a horror mure overpowering than all. This is either 
Herculaneum or Pompeii. There is no fancy about 



VOLCANIC TUFA, POMPEII. 183 

this ; it is too terribly real. Some seem to re gar i it 
as a judgment of the gods. There is wild agony, 
prayer, and blind dread. Now I see them. Some 
wring their hands ; others throw out their arms wildly. 
I see no one injured ; that is, I receive no impression 
to that effect. 

" I feel the influence of some persons at a distance 
from here. Now, I see a very large crowd of persons, 
some hurrying along, and occasionally looking back; 
others seem to feel as if they could never leave, but 
are compelled to go to save their lives. The scene 
is agonizing in the extreme. I see one woman dart 
from the rest, and rush back, as if she had left a help- 
less parent or child to perish, that she was now deter- 
mined to save ; but she is compelled to give it up in 
despair, for there is a fresh burst from the mountain, 
and she sees there is no hope. A darkness almost as 
great as night is now around them. How wild they 
seem ! Many know not what to do, nor where to go. 
They act as if they thought there was hardly any place 
left in the wide world for them. There is a town at 
no great distance, to which many of them seem to be 
fleeing. I feel the influence dividing off in different 
directions ; but I think many who escaped afterwards 
perished. Such is the impression I receive. 

" Those flashes from the mountain have a slight 
tinge of purple. 

"I am in the city now, and, under the material, I can 
see something of its previous condition. I am sur- 
prised at their structures, now that I see them more 
clearly. Their architecture is not of that massive 
kind that I have supposed it to be. The place resem- 



184 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

bles a modern town much more than I ever imagined. 
There is a good deal of taste manifested in the ar- 
rangement of the town and buildings, and much time 
and means have been employed in making it beautiful 
and cheerful. I see a large open space that looks like 
what we call a square. In the distance I see a long 
dwelling ; but with this specimen it is very difficult to 
obtain conditions as they were before the eruption." 

EXPERIMENT LXXV. 

I told her that I had another specimen from the 
same place, and that from it, I supposed, she could ob- 
tain previous conditions readily. This specimen she 
did not recognize, though it was the specimen of fresco 
painting, from " Cicero's House/'' that she had pre- 
viously examined. 

"All is in a perfect whirl." (Pause.) " Now it is 
more calm. There are multitudes in the streets on 
business. Many of them are collected in one place. 
It seems the early part of the day. Some never went 
home from here, they started off in such haste. They 
must have had some idea of danger for several days 
before this. There is a feeling of fear and insecurity 
among them, but the great catastrophe came so sud- 
denly, at last, that they never returned to their houses 
again. 

" Now I am farther back in time. I see a great 
many persons in the streets. What most singular- 
Looking vehicles they have 1 they are straight up and 
down behind, and generally very narrow, as if intend- 
ed only for one person. 1 can sec ajiead sticking up 
bere and there, above the odd-looking backs. The 



VOLCANIC TUFA, POMPEII. 185 

front part has a curve from the top, and looks better 
than the back. There seems to have been much labor 
and art bestowed upon them, but they are clumsy af- 
fairs. 

" In one place I see a long bar or railing along the 
street, and over it there are long poles bent into arch- 
es, each end being in the ground. Business seems to 
be done there, for I see many going up and down. 
At times, I think, coarse cloth is spread over those 
arches to keep off rain or sunshine, or both. It seems 
to be a kind of market-place, and this is where, I think, 
many people were on that dreadful morning. I see a 
large building that must have cost a great deal of la- 
bor ; it has a circular appearance, and is very different 
from any building I ever saw before. The lower part 
of it is larger than the central, and has arched open- 
ings all round it that seem like rooms. The second 
story has openings all round farther in. People seem 
to be going there. 

" I am in the building now, in which there is a great 
number of people. They do not seem to take any 
part, but merely look on. I feel no solemnity about it, 
as in a church. In it I see an oval space. The peo- 
ple seem to be seated very singularly ; I cannot ac- 
count for it, unless the seats rise as they extend back. 
It is built in the fashion of an amphitheatre, so that 
those farthest back can see over the others 7 heads. 
There is some mirthfulness in their feelings, but I can- 
not see what is going on down there. 

" Now, I see persons singularly dressed ; some of 
them are on animals that look like horses, but they 
seem smaller than ours. Some of them are women; 



186 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

one of them on horseback. There is an entrance 
where they come in, beautifully decorated with flow- 
ers. I see one young lady, with small features, of 
straight and rather slender figure, standing on horse' 
back near there ; she seems to have just ridden round 
She looks beautiful. There is nothing on her head but 
a wreath of flowers. She has a light-colored dress 
which is in good taste, and rides on a light-colored 
horse. The men have dresses on, that give them the 
appearance of possessing wings, as they fly round, 
standing on their horses. I can fancy some of them to 
be fixed up to resemble birds. Some of them are 
dressed in black. The lady on the pony is gay, merry 
and nimble ; the men do not seem so light-hearted. 
What a rider she is ! It is fearful to see her ; I can 
scarcely credit that any one could ride like that. I 
sometimes think, some of the men are dressed to rep- 
resent dark angels, and she a bright one. This is a 
very large place, and is strongly built. 

" I see a street now, in what seems twilight. There 
is an archway, and under it, at one end, is a statue ; and 
figures in alto relievo on the sides. I thought at first 
that it was connected with the market, but I now think, 
it is the entrance to that amphitheatre. On each side 
of the statue, which seems to represent a woman, is 
an animal couched. 

" My attention is turned to the eruption again. The 
firsl thing that [notice, is that hollow sound from the 
mountain; then a rumbling. I hear a kind of sharp, 
hissing noise occasionally. All die away, and the peo- 
ple seem to recover from their ("right. This appears 
to have been some days before the destruction." 



VOLCANIC TUFA, POMPEII. 187 

(Were any persons in the amphitheatre when it com- 
menced?) "I think there were. Those near the en- 
trance heard the screams in the streets, and then the 
intelligence seems to have been slowly communicated 
through the whole mass. 

" I see and feel the rushing water now ; that was 
water. There was a pause after the first outgush. 
Every eye is turned toward the mountain. A great 
many moved before the worst came. All the light 
seems to be colored ; it takes its color from the cloud 
through which it passes. A purple twilight is thus 
produced, — a rather dark twilight. What a scene for 
a painter ! In-doors it is absolutely dark, and the peo- 
ple are rushing into the streets in every direction. I 
see them carry of! their valuables. They load them 
into their vehicles and drive off; others take loads of 
people and drive off furiously. I am now up where I 
can see them nearly all over the city hurrying in ev- 
ery direction. They carried off the more helpless, the 
old, and the feeble and sick, while the strong ones 
walked. I can see some of those with vehicles, ahead 
of that crowd I saw with the other specimen ; they 
are driving with all speed, apparently to return again. 
I see some covered vehicles among them, but they 
look strange." 

Pompeii was a city in Italy, situated on the river 
Sarnus, near the Bay of Naples, and, unfortunately for 
its inhabitants, within a short distance of Vesuvius. 
All the neighboring heights were crowned with villas, 
and the loveliness of the whole region, favored by na- 
ture and adorned by art, was unsurpassed. 

In A. D. 63, an earthquake threw down part of the 



188 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

city. From time to time, smaller shocks occurred, un- 
til, on the 23d of August, a. d. 79, Vesuvius awoke 
from the slumber of ages, and poured out rocks, ashes 
and dust, that buried the city and surrounding coun- 
try. The contrast between its previous and subse- 
quent condition is thus given us by Martial : — 

" Here verdant vines o'erspread Vesuvius' sides ; 
The generous grape here poured her purple tides. 
This Bacchus loved beyond his native scene ; 
Here dancing satyrs joyed to trip the green. 
Far more than Sparta this in Venus' grace ; 
And great Alcides once renowned the place : 
Now flaming embers spread dire waste around, 
And gods regret that gods can thus confound." 

The younger Pliny, who was an eye-witness of the 
eruption that destroyed the city, gives us a very inter- 
esting narrative of it, many portions of which corrob- 
orate the statements made during the preceding exam- 
ination. He tells us that a cloud was seen to ascend 
from Mount Vesuvius, of very unusual size and shape. 
" I cannot give a more exact description of its figure, 
than by resembling it to that of a pine tree, for it shot 
up a great height in the form of a trunk, which ex- 
tended itself at the top into a sort of branches ; occa- 
sioned, I imagine, either by a sudden gust of air that 
impelled it, the force of which decreased as it ad- 
vanced upwards, or the cloud itself, being pressed 
back agaiD by its own weight, expanded in this man- 
ner. It appeared sometimes bright and sometimes 
dark and spotted, as it was more or less impregnated 
with earl h and cinders." 

For many days previous to the eruption there had 



DESTRUCTION OP POMPEII. 189 

been earthquake shocks, but on that night they were 
particularly violent. The next morning, which ush- 
ered in no daylight, the cloud seemed to descend and 
cover the whole ocean. Pliny and his mother fled for 
their lives, and he says : — 

" The ashes now began to fall upon us, 
though in no great quantity. I turned my head, and 
observed behind us a thick smoke, which came rolling 
after us like a torrent. I proposed, while we had yet 
any light, to turn out of the high road, lest we should 
be pressed to death in the dark by the crowd that fol- 
lowed us. We had scarce stepped out of the path, 
when darkness overspread us, not like that of a cloudy 
night, or when there is no moon, but of a room when 
it is shut up, and all the lights extinct. Nothing then 
was to be heard but the shrieks of women, the screams 
of children, and the cries of men ; some calling for 
their children, others for their parents, others for their 
husbands, and only distinguishing each other by their 
voices ; one lamenting his own fate, another that of his 
family ; some wishing to die from the very fear of dy- 
ing ; some lifting their hands to the gods ; but the 
greater part imagining that the last and eternal night 
was come, which was to destroy the gods and the 
world together.' 7 

Mrs. Denton, it may be proper to say, had never 
read this account of Pliny's, nor in fact any descrip- 
tion of the event she so truthfully describes. 

There is one statement made by the psychometer that 
is contrary to the generally received opinion respect- 
ing the phenomena attending the destruction of Pom- 
pe : i. It is generally supposed that ashes, falling as 




190 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

the snow falls, in process of time enveloped the city ; 
but, according to the preceding examination, water 
vomited from Vesuvius, and sweeping the loose ashes 
along with its current, must have contributed materi- 
ally to the catastrophe. There are many facts, which 
have been brought to light by the excavations at Pom- 
peii, which are in harmony with this idea. 

Various skeletons that have been discovered were 
found enclosed in hardened tuff, which appears to 
have flowed around them, for in some cases perfect 
casts of bodies have been found ; as in the case of a 
woman found in a cellar, with an infant in her arms. 
Casts have been recently discovered, so perfect, that in 
pouring into them plaster-of-Paris, there were formed 
statues of the ancient Romans, true to the life. Lyell 
informs us that a mask imbedded in tuff has left a cast, 
the sharpness of which has been compared to those in 
plaster-of-Paris ; the mask was not in the least degree 
scorched, as if it had been imbedded in heated matter. 
The cellars and vaults of Pompeii are filled with mat- 
ter that seems to have flowed in, which can hardly be 
accounted for, except by streams of mud resulting 
from a flow of water from the mountain ; for no quan- 
tity of rain upon the dry ashes and cinders could have 
caused such a flow. 

It is generally considered that the Roman amphithe- 
atres were devoted e>;<-liisively to gladiatorial shows. 
What was seen in the experiment, however, more 
nearly resembles our modern circus performances. I 
bave no historical evidence to offer in favor of what 
was lli as Been, except the fact, which some may think 
of I tut, little importance in this connection, that when 



CHARCOAL FROM HERCULANEUM. 191 

the amphitheatre at Pompeii was first opened, paint- 
ings in fresco were found, representing gladiators, min- 
strels, musicians, and winged genii. These latter may 
have been what were seen represented. 

EXPERIMENT LXXVI. 

A piece of charcoal from a beam in Herculaneum. 
Conditions as in previous experiment. 

" I see low buildings on a low piece of land, that 
looks to me like an island ; but that is perhaps a mis- 
take. The buildings are so far away that they may 
look lower than they really are. I am on high ground, 
and look down upon them ; and from where I am they 
have quite a hut-like look. South and southeast of the 
land there is water ; the northern part seems higher." 
(Long pause.) " There are many and conflicting influ- 
ences in this. 

" I obtain the influence of a city, of a palace, and 
again, of a garden and water. The palace, as I call it, 
is a large building and highly decorated, and has a pa- 
latial appearance, at all events. There is an extensive 
garden attached to it. (There seems to be a mixture 
of present and past that I do not understand.) This 
seems to be near the sea ; I feel the influence of it, 
and see ships that stop at a point near here ; I should 
Ithink within the limits of the city. There is a curious 
ningling of modern sensations with ancient appearan- 
ces, and I cannot imagine the cause of it. Either I 
obtain two different ages mixed together, or there is a 
rery distinct difference between one part of the inhab- 
tants and another part. Yes, I obtain the influence 
of the city ; one part of the inhabitants seems refined, 



192 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

in many respects, and the other, coarse, uncultivated. 
The difference between them is very marked ; but I 
do not exactly give it. In this palace there is great 
refinement and cultivation, but it is different from 
ours ; it seems occupied by a different people. I feel 
that their customs would appear very singular to us. 
They must recognize caste in a very different way 
from what we do. There seem to be two distinct 
castes, that do not mingle ; the distinction between 
them does not arise from intellect in any way, but 
from wealth; there may be an intermediate class. 
There is a great deal here that is rich and magnifi- 
cent. 

" There seem to be hills beyond where I am. I do 
not think that was an island that I saw, but a low place 
extending into the water. In some places I see wo- 
men doing out-of-door work, but there are some too 
much refined for that. There is a great deal that is 
romantic in the appearance of this city. On the city 
heights is a great gorge, with something built over it 
like a bridge. There must be a good many inhabit- 
ants in that upper part of the city. The people are 
much engaged in fruit-growing, I think. I see exten- 
sive grounds covered with vegetation. It may consist 
of vines; but there seem to be fruits, that are not 
grown in this country. Many people arc engaged in 
;i{ lending to fchem. I judge it is a warmer climate 
than 1 1] is. Some of the women appear quite mascu- 
line in their habits; they attend to the fruits and 
grounds, and drive teams. They have no long skirts; 
their dresses are quite soanl ; I cannot tell what they 
are made of. 



CHARCOAL FROM HERCULANEUM. 193 

" I dow obtain the influence of the country around. 
I see very high cliffs, and, at some distance, there is 
a range of country that has a volcanic appearance ; 
at all events, I obtain that sensation from it. I should 
not be surprised if they felt earthquake shocks here j 
they certainly feel, occasionally, interior disturbances 
of some kind, and they are quite strong at times. I 
am on the Eastern Continent somewhere, for there is 
an oriental appearance about the people and country. 
This is from some country facing the south or south- 
ward, and the sea lies toward the south. I see several 
spires in different parts of the city. I am part of the 
way up the heights now, and I cannot readily go down 
into the city. I overlook part of it. I see shining ap- 
pearances here and there, that I do not understand ; 
they are caused, I think, by something bright reflect- 
ing the light. I see steps that go up to the higher 
parts of the city. In some places they go up very 
steep to great heights, where teams cannot go, unless 
by very circuitous roads. 

" The religion of these people does not enter into 
everything as with the Egyptians. There is a good 
deal of show about it, but little devotion ; they seem a 
perfect contrast to the Egyptians in this respect. The 
forms of the Egyptians were the offspring of the in- 
ward principle ; but among these people, the form calls 
up the feeling." 

SECOND EXAMINATION. 

Continued next day. 

" I stand in a very different position in reference to 
the city from what I did before. It is now in front of 
me, with the hills in the background. I see piles, or 



194 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

heaps, that are smoking — several of them — in the 
city ; they are some distance from me. 

"I am now in an immense building; it looks very 
singular ; it is open, to a great extent, and very 
roomy. I do not yet see the whole ; either I do not 
see the dividing walls, or they are not there. There 
is a long circular stairway, on which I see crowds of 
people. What an extensive place it is ! it is used for 
great public gatherings. A great many people are in 
it now. It looks like an immense amphitheatre (what 
I see, comes up in fragments) ; the lower part open to 
some extent, and the people above. It reminds me in 
some respects of the amphitheatre of Pompeii, but the 
influence seems more modern, and the people more 
modern ; yet, they are not of the present time. Now, I 
see more fully the arrangement of the place. It is a 
large amphitheatre, and full of people ■; but I cannot 
see what is going on in the arena. There is an un- 
clean influence down there ; it seems like a stable, 
though I cannot conceive of its being tolerated in such 
a place. It does not proceed from the arena so much 
as from its surroundings, though I cannot tell why ; I 
see nothing to indicate it. I should think this would 
be a disagreeable place for refined people to visit. 
There are places in connection with this where ani- 
mals are kept. I cannot see anything in that pit. 

"I get the idea of its being consumed; fire and 
smoke come in and crowd out other views." 

She took an atlas, turned over to the map of Europe, 
and after a short pause pu1 her finger near the Bay of 
Naples, covering the very apot^ where Herculaneum 
lies buried. 



LIMESTONE, CHICAGO. 195 

This from a piece of charcoal, no larger than a hazel- 
nut. The chemist looks at it, and says, — "A fine piece 
of carbon, of the same chemical composition as the 
diamond ; by no means, at my command, distinguishable 
from a piece made by the charcoal-burner last week." 
The artist looks at it, and says, — " This would form 
outlines of figures very readily, and I see no other use 
to which it could be put in my line/"' But the psy- 
chometer takes it, and what a revelation of sights, 
sounds and feelings ! Who can tell the infinite num- 
ber of pictures that it contains ; the knowledge that 
might be gained from it in reference to subjects on 
which all history is silent, and yet subjects in which 
we are deeply interested ? I believe that a true his- 
tory of the lava-buried city, more full and more 
accurate than historian ever wrote of any city, might 
be obtained from that fragment of a charred Hercula- 
neum beam. The eruption that overwhelmed the city, 
would have been seen, no doubt, if the experiment had 
been continued for a sufficient length of time. 

I have been unable to verify many of the statements 
here made with regard to Herculaneum, from the 
great paucity of definite information, in all books that 
I have been able to obtain, bearing upon the subject. 
I have no doubt, however, that a searching investiga- 
tion would result, as it does almost invariably, in 
establishing the correctness of the psychometric vis- 
ion, even to the minutest particular. 

EXPERIMENT LXXVU. 

Piece of limestone picked up on the surface, near a 
limestone quarry, about two miles west of Chicago. 
Conditions as before. 



106 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

" City scenes come before me. 

" Now I see another town, made of huts, with a hill 
or mound back of it. There are many men and women, 
who look something like Indians, but smaller and dif- 
ferent from any that 1 have seen before. In the town 
is- a large, heavy, dark building, with a raised platform 
at the end of it, and an image upon it, something like 
a human being. The platform takes up the whole 
breadth of the building, and there are six or eight 
steps up to it. There are props supporting the roof, 
consisting of pieces of wood one above another." (In- 
terrupted, and after a little time tried it again.) 

" Similar scenes all come over again in the same 
order. I have, 

" 1. Glimpses of present conditions ; 

" 2. Forest, all wild ; 

"3. Indian town, with trees in the distance. They 
have been taking out rock to a great depth here ; at 
one place there is quite an excavation." . 

Who were these people that looked like Indians, but 
were smaller in size, and more advanced in the arts ; 
who built temples, and carved rude images? Have 
they disappeared, like the mastodon that once rambled 
over the wide land, or were they driven south by the 
Indian Goths and Vandals who poured in upon them 
from the North and West? The soil we tread, the 
rocks we carelessly trample under our feet, abound 
with the records of the primitive inhabitants of the 
land ; and we leave our traces, in like manner, to bo 
read by those thai shall come after. 

I know of do traces of an Indian town in the neigh- 
borhood where the specimen was obtained, though 



TOMBS OP THE KINGS, THEBES. 197 

such might possibly be found on examining the spot, 
for the situation is one well suited for an Indian vil- 
lage, as it must have been, at one time, the first ground 
in the vicinity of Chicago, west of Lake Michigan, that 
was not overflowed every spring. 

EXPERIMENT LXXV1IL 

A piece of stalagmitic limestone from one of the 
Tombs of the Kings near Thebes. 

Specimen seen, but nothing known regarding it. 

"What I see has the appearance of being reflected, 
as if near a river and reflected by its water. It looks 
like the side of a room, though, in some respects, it dif- 
fers considerably from that. It has a natural feeling, 
but an artificial look. It looks to me like an opening 
in a bank ; it has quite an artificial appearance, and 
yet seems so natural. I think it has been used by 
human beings. I cannot tell, though I have been try- 
ing for some time, what makes this union of the natural 
and artificial. There seem to be many influences 
mixed up with this. 

" The human influences are of a very peculiar kind. 
I see a long train of persons going to and coming from 
this place ; they are carrying something. Some have 
animals, which they lead, walking by the side of them ; 
the animals look strange ; I cannot tell what they are. 
These persons differ from all with which I am familiar. 
Two rows of them stand facing each other. 

" I cannot imagine what this means. I see several 
faces that seem to be looking out of holes in a wall-like 
surface ; they are human faces. 

" Now, a great; company, connected together in some 



198 JTHE SOUL OP THINGS. 

way, are moving something high over the ground, and 
again, I see others quite independent. 

" I see some that look as if they were building ; 
hundreds are moving, hurrying in every direction ; but 
what I see is not distinct enough for accurate descrip- 
tion. 

" Now, they are all collected in a great crowd before 
a place where there is a large door. As far as I can 
see, there are rows of persons carrying something. 
Now, they have their arms raised up. Above and 
around that door the hill is cut away, so as to form 
three truncated pyramids, one above another, becom- 
ing smaller to the top, the door being in the centre of 
the lower one. All over this, crowds are standing, 
wherever there is room; some looking down at the 
spectacle below. All seem to have some common ob- 
ject. There is a sensation of gloom here, though the 
appearance of the people seems to contradict it ; but 
that may be in accordance with the custom of the 
country. I think this must be a burial place ; and they 
have either carried a body in there, or go and see a 
body, and then make wild demonstrations of extrav- 
agant, showy mourning, that we should regard as 
quite indecorous; there is nothing quiet or subdued 
about it. 

"I see a portion of a high building, with three stat- 
ues of human beings standing on the top of it. I see 
another building, with smaller figures on each end. 
There are many buildings in the distance. I seem to 
1)0 in a city, or something like it. They are a busy 
people here, — like iinls, moving continually in a hurry 
from one thing to another. They work together in 



TOMBS OF THE KINGS, THEBES. 199 

large numbers; so differently from our people. They 
take great pleasure in their labor. 

" I see a building now, that has four or five terraces 
all round it, smaller and smaller toward the top. The 
ceiling has a very substantial look. 

" It fatigues me to follow the motions of these peo- 
ple. Every man in the city seems to work with every 
other man. Whatever is done, is done by the multi- 
tude. There is another long procession, just going 
round the corner. Some kind of animals — I think 
they must be camels — take part in the procession, not 
as beasts of burden, but as if they were esteemed. 

" I see a square kind of opening, apparently an en- 
trance to a building. If a building, it is a curious one. 
It is ornamented with sculpture, and reminds me of the 
cave temples of India, though I do not know that this 
is the same. The people have a darkish look ; 'much 
more so than Europeans.' 7 

The Tombs of the Kings are chambers, hewn out of 
the solid limestone, on the side of a mountain, seven or 
eight miles from the river Nile, and near the ancient 
city of Thebes. That mixture of the natural and arti- 
ficial, which the psychometer could not understand, 
may be referred to the artificial excavations thus made 
in the natural rock. 

From the city of Thebes, through whose streets, at 
the time of her visit, the tide of life was flowing, and 
the tide of death ebbing, she sees the processions as 
they march with the embalmed bodies of the deceased 
to their resting-place. It was the custom to draw the 
bodies to the tombs on- sledges, accompanied with long 
processions; on which occasions that extravagant 



200 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

mourning was indulged in, which so excited her atten- 
tion. Wilkinson thus refers to the Egyptian customs 
on occasions of death and burial : — 

" When any one died, all the females of his family, 
covering their heads and faces with mud, and leaving 
the body in the house, ran through the streets with 
their bosoms exposed, striking themselves, and utter- 
ing loud lamentations. Their friends and relations 
joined them as they went, uniting in the same demon- 
strations of grief; and when the deceased was a per- 
son of consideration, many strangers accompanied 
them, out of respect to his memory. Hired mourners 
were also employed to add, by their feigned demonstra- 
tions of grief, to the real lamentations of the family, 
and to heighten the show of respect paid to the de- 
ceased." * 

Trie present funeral customs in Egypt throw light 
upon their ancient practices. As soon as a person is 
known to be dying, " the females of the family raise 
the cry of lamentation, one generally commencing in a 
low tone, and exclaiming, ' Oh, my misfortune ! ' which 
is immediately taken up by another with increased 
vehemence ; and all join in similar exclamations, united 
with piercing cries. They call on the deceased ac- 
cording to their degree of relationship, as, ' Oh, my 
father! Oh, my mother! Oh, my sister! Oh, my 
brother ! Oh, my aunt ! ' or according to the friendship 
and connection existing between them, as, 'Oh, my 
p'l Oh, lord of the house ! Oh, my friend! Oh, 
my dear, my soul, my eyes!' and many of the neigh- 
bors, as well ns the friends of the family, join in the 

* Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, Vol. n. p. 408. 



MUMMIED CROCODILE, MAABDEH. 201 

lamentations. Hired mourning women are also en- 
gaged, who utter cries of grief, and praise the virtues 
of the deceased, while the females of the house rend 
their clothes, beat themselves, and make other violent 
demonstrations of sorrow.' 7 ' 55 ' 

The great similarity between this and what Mrs. P. 
saw, must be apparent to all ; but, to give an explana- 
tion of all that was presented during this experiment, 
would require a knowledge of Egyptology to which I 
can make no pretension. 

EXPERIMENT LXXIX. 

From a gentleman in Quebec I obtained a small 
mummied crocodile, taken by him from a crocodile pit 
at Maabdeh, Egypt. Some time afterward I took a 
small portion of the cloth in which it was wrapped, 
and pulled it into fine tow ; then wrapped it in three 
thicknesses of writing paper, and presented it to Mrs. 
Denton, who did not see it, and had no idea of its na- 
ture. 

" I see a great mound or hill, with a place cut into 
it on one side. 

" I am looking over the heads of a great many peo- 
ple, who are busily engaged in doing something, I can- 
not yet see what. I see a long, deep place, that goes 
away under the hill. I do not know what to call it. 
Near it is an extensive wall ; but it does not seem to 
be connected with any building. 

" The people here, are, I think, Egyptians ; they 
look like it. There is an honesty about them that I 

* Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, Vol. n. p. 403. Quoted from Lane's Modern 

Egyptians. 



202 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

like. They are destitute of that hypocrisy which I 
have so frequently noticed, when examining psycho- 
metrically. They seem to carry their religion into 
almost', everything they do. In all their work they 
seem to give expression to their religious ideas. The 
universality of this expression is truly wonderful. It 
does not seem to be confined to any particular place. 
They seem to regard everything as a partial embodi- 
ment of the Divinity, or an embodiment of some part 
of the Divinity. They are exceedingly religious in 
their way ; the religious people of this day cannot 
' compare with them in the habitual exercise of devo- 
tion. 

"I see shadowy appearances of very large forms, 
some of which resemble human beings, but they are 
stationary. All the buildings have a solid and sub- 
stantial appearance. The architecture is all heavy. 

" There seems to be a dark passage to that place, 
that I said looked like an excavation. It seems closed 
up. The entrance looks very singular ; I know not 
how to describe it. Light and ethereal forms are mov- 
ing in the air in that entrance, some human, some ani- 
mal. I could fancy them to be the spirits of those 
that are buried in there, for I think it must be a burial 
place. They seem as much more refined than common 
psychometric objects, as these are more refined than 
ordinary objects. One seems like a turtle; another 
looks like a rabbit, but the ears are not as large. 
There is a great deal about this that I cannot give, for 
I am unable to describe it. 

"I see great [lumbers of crocodiles, some large and 
others small. 



MUMMIED CROCODILE, MAABDEH. 203 

" 1 see hills, all of dust, that look as if they might 
be changed from one place to another ; or, as if the 
wind might blow them away. 

(i I seem to oscillate between the far past and a more 
recent period ; which makes ac curate description diffi- 
cult. I think those hills must be sand ; they have too 
bright a look for dust. 

" (There comes up occasionally a being of the human 
form, having a wild appearance, very different from 
the people I have been seeing.) These people do a 
great deal of work in stone, cutting it into many dif- 
ferent forms. (I feel the influence occasionally of high 
rocks.) They are as industrious as ants in building, 
excavating and cutting. They work together. They 
have many projects, but are by no means idle dream- 
ers, for they execute, too. I see objects that tower 
up in the air to points ; they are distinct from the 
buildings, and seem three-sided ; they must be obe- 
lisks. I see several of them. Now, I see a live croc- 
odile, a large one, that seems to be in the street." 

That the ancient Egyptians were a very religious 
people, there can be no doubt. " The Egyptians,'' says 
Herodotus, " are very religious, surpassing all men in 
the honors they pay to the gods." * A similar testi- 
mony is borne by others. " The Egyptian priests," 
says Porphyry, " profiting by their diligent study of 
philosophy, and their intimate acquaintance with the 
nature of the gods, have learnt that the Divinity per- 
meates other beings as well as man, that he is not the 
only creature on earth possessed of a soul ; and that 
nearly the same spiritual essence pervades all the 

* Herodotus, n. 37. 



204 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

tribes of living creatures. On this account, in fash- 
ioning images of the gods ; they have adopted the 
forms of all animals, sometimes joining the human fig- 
ure with those of beasts ; at others, combining the 
shapes of men and of birds.'' * 

How exceedingly refined must that influence be, 
which, passing from a small piece of linen tow, perme- 
ates three thicknesses of writing paper, and then gives 
to the psychometer the sensations recorded ! 

EXPERIMENT LXXX. 

I had long desired to investigate psychometrically 
some of the human relics discovered in the drift de- 
posits of England, France, and G-ermany ; and after 
many fruitless inquiries for specimens, in museums 
and geological collections, chance threw in my way 
the opportunity I had so long desired. While in Mont- 
real, in December of last year, I observed at the bot- 
tom of McGill Street several heaps of flint shingle, 
laid there previous to being used for macadamizing 
the street. This flint shingle surprised me, for I had 
seen nothing of the kind in America; and, of course, 
Canada was the last place in America to look for it. 
On inquiry, I learned that it had been brought from 
England as ballast. Though I Avas unable to discover 
from what part of England these particular heaps were 
brought, it was evident that they came from a cretace- 
ous neighborhood, and I thought, likely, from the 
southeastern portion of the island. Among the flints I 
found two line specimens of the echinus, and several 
smaller fossils, nor dreamed of higher game; *but just 

♦Wilkinson's Ancient. Egyptians, 11. Hi!). 



ANCIENT MEN OF ENGLAND. 205 

as I was about to give up my search, in the twilight 
of a cold December evening, I found a fragment of 
bone, hard frozen into the heap, which, on splintering, 
proved to be fossilized ; and on the next morning, in a 
neighboring heap, I discovered some twenty or thirty 
black or dark brown splintered fragments of fossil 
bone. Some appeared like portions of the skeletons 
of bovine quadrupeds, others of deer ; one, the bone 
of a bird; and a few smaller pieces, from the size of 
the bone cells, I considered as probably portions of the 
mammoth, or eleplias primigenius. From portions of 
clay attached to them, they had evidently been buried 
in a bed of blue clay originally ; they adhered strongly 
to the tongue, and one that I fractured showed a 
bright metallic lustre. Probably, said I to myself, 
these were washed out of a drift bed, or more recent 
alluvial deposit, by the waves, and thus became min- 
gled with the shingle of the beach, from which the 
sailors loaded them into the vessel ; and, possibly, 
from them I may obtain some knowledge of those hu- 
man beings who inhabited Great Britain at an early 
period. I accordingly took one of these bones, which 
had apparently been cut with some sharp instrument, 
to extract the marrow, and gave it to Mrs. Denton for 
examination. She knew something of my ideas on 
the subject but had no faith in them. 

" I see a head ; the lower part of the forehead is» 
very prominent, so that the eyes seem deeply set. 
The forehead is very low, and round and receding. 
The face has an awful look ; it is dark, and feathers 
are stuck round the head. (It was merely a glimpse.) 

" Now I see the chest and arms. It seems hardly 



206 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

human ; yet it is not savage and wild, for I have no 
such sensation in connection with it, as I have felt be- 
fore in connection with early men. There seems a 
good deal of fun, frolic and good-nature here. The 
mouth is crescent-shaped, the face short, and the front 
head slopes on each side, forming quite* an angle. I 
see an older and larger one, that shows its teeth, 
which are large. It is coarser and uglier, and seems 
very bad-tempered. 

" I see one sitting on a log, his long legs hanging 
down, crossed at the ankles, and his hands between his 
knees. He is looking off. In front of him is a cave. 
It is sad to see such a pitiful object in the shape of a 
human being. I question whether he can stand per- 
fectly upright ; his hip-joints appear to be so formed 
that he cannot, though he sits comfortably. Whether 
this is natural to him, or is a condition produced by 
disease, I cannot say. Now I see him perfectly. I 
can hardly credit that he is human, yet there is a hu- 
man expression in the face. His body is very hairy ; 
it appears as if the natural hair answered the purpose 
of clothing. A part of the face is destitute of hair, 
but it is dark-colored. That is not a log that he sits 
on, I see, but a rock. He must have gone there fre- 
quently to sit. He seems to be in a kind of study; 
there is evidently some power of thought. 

" I have a glimpse of another one, smaller, more 
slender, and less hairy. One hand is raised. (My ex- 
citement prevents my seeing.) Occasionally, I sec 
part of the body of one of those beings that looks com- 
paratively smooth. I can sec the skin, which is lighter- 
colored. 1 do not know whether it belongs to the 
period or not. 



EARLY MEN OF ENGLAND. 207 

" It is rather dark in that cave ; I can only see a lit- 
tle way. There is something in the back part of it, 
but I cannot see what it is. 

" In the soft floor, at the bottom of the cave, are cu- 
rious markings. It looks as if some one, for pastime 
or for play, had made a number of shallow holes. 
There must be quite a number of these beings around 
here, for I see others occasionally. I see one more 
slender than the first, and another larger', heavier, and 
yet smoother and more delicate. I think this is a fe- 
male. She is fuller and more rounded, and her limbs 
are shorter; but her face is far from being that i human 
face divine/ of which the poets speak, though I only 
obtain its general appearance. I see another female, 
smaller than the first. They are more erect than 
those hairy ones I saw, who are males, I suppose ; but 
it is strange there should be such a difference between 
them. 

"I see an animal, in a kind of enclosure, that seems 
partly tamed. It is a large, herbivorous animal, and I 
fancy now that the first man I saw was watching it, 
till some one else came ; two or three of them taking 
turns. 

" There must be a number here, from the influence I 
feel, — more than one family. All that I have seen 
hitherto, have been perfectly nude; but I see the back 
of one now, that seems to have some kind of covering 
on ; I think it is a skin. The wearer is one of the 
fairer, erect kind, as most of them are that I see now. 
They seem much more human than the others. 

"In that cave I see objects that I cannot tell the 
use of; they seem made of stone. Some are five or 



208 THE, SOUL OF THINGS. 

six feet long ; but they must be made of wood, with a 
sharp point of stone at the end; they have a round 
end where they, are handled, and I think now are used 
as spears for killing animals. I see smaller ones hang- 
ing on the side of the cave. There seems to be a belt 
of skin, several feet long, fastened against the wall, 
and through it different implements are placed. Some 
are seven or eight inches long, and others but two or 
three. Some are bulky, and look like hammers, while 
others are slim and sharp. 77 (Are they made of flint?) 
" They look hard, and some seem to have been chipped, 
but I am not near enough to distinguish the precise 
material of which they are composed. 

" I feel a great many of these beings about, going 
in and out, but I cannot see many. That cave is quite 
a large place. There are some implements hanging 
on the wall that are quite sharp; they seem to be flint. 
They use them to cut up their meat with. (I feel 
this.) They did not eat their flesh raw; I have the 
impression of its being cooked. 

" I see green trees ; the vegetation seems like that 
of a warmer country than this. I see grape vines. 
There is much more intelligence among these beings 
than those I saw with that specimen from Mount 
Ararat. (Experiment 83.) 

" These dark ones do not seem as savage as I should 
expect. There is something mild and submissive about 
them. At a distance the face seems flat; the lower 
part of it is heavy; they have what, I suppose, would 
be called prognathous jaws. The frontal region of the 
head is lew, and the lower portion of it is very promi- 
nent, forming a rounded ridge across the forehead, 



EARLY MEN OF ENGLAND. 209 

immediately above the eye-brows. The hair bushes 
up full in front and seems inclined to curl. I think 
there is hair on the chin and sides of the face. 

" I see something peculiar at the edge of a wood. 
Between the rocks and the wood is an open space ; 
and near the wood is something built that seems in- 
tended to shed rain. There are vines growing over it. 

" I see an animal now, much larger than the largest 
ox; with large, long horns, three times as large as any 
I ever saw, that curve over on each side and almost 
meet under the head. 7 ' 

EXPERIMENT LXXXI. 

A few days afterward, other and different specimens 
having been tried in the interim, I broke off a small 
fragment from the same bone and gave it to Mrs. Den- 
ton for examination. She might have supposed it to 
be bone from its feeling, but she certainly had no idea 
of its being a portion of the one previously examined. 

" I see a rude bucket hanging on a cross-bar sup- 
ported by two forked sticks. It is long for its width, 
and seems to have been, dug out of solid wood. There 
is something around it near the top, probably to fasten 
something to, to carry it by. It is rough on the out- 
side. 

" I see a very low place, that looks as if made to live 
in; it goes up to a sharp peak. (There is some animal 
influence about this specimen, from the feeling I have.) 
That house is made by poles put in the ground and 
poles on the top connecting; then it is banked up with 
earth, and skins are put over it — so it seems. I see 
the poles have forked tops, and the top poles are 



210 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

placed in the forks. I see another, that is round on 
top ; and in the distance are three or four little ones. 
I see shadows of people moving around ; I cannot see 
any one distinctly. I now see the facial bones of a 
human being ; the teeth are very prominent, the jaws 
large, and the front part of the face very prominent 
and large. 

" I feel now as if I were in one of those places in 
the rock that I saw the other night. I do not see that 
long row of implements, but I am in a place like that. 
I see some great branching horns in there, but no ani- 
mal. The horns are much longer than any I ever saw. 
There are two main branches on each side and a num- 
ber of smaller ones. Between the two, short points 
stick up, that give it a singular appearance. It seems 
to be on a kind of seat above the ground. 

"I see an animal lying down, that has a tapering 
face and nose, more so than a sheep ; though it looks 
more like a sheep than any other animal I have seen. 
Its eyes are large. It has short horns, and is herbiv- 
orous ; but what is most remarkable about it, and what 
I cannot understand, is that it has four horns. I see 
many tilings, but not distinctly enough to describe. 
Many that I see seem quite incongruous and must 
have been brought here ; for instance, I see a singular- 
looking spiny fish lying on the ground. I have seen 
several limes the head of an anima] resembling an ox, 
but with a thin and sliorl under jaw, compared with 
the upper, wnich is heavier than in our cattle. It has 
a curly front. The whole head looks very heavy. 

"Now I Bee a face thai looks like that of a human 
being, though there is a monkey-like appearance about 



EARLY MEN OF ENGLAND. 211 

it. I also see several persons trying to roll a large 
angular stone. One I can see quite plain ; lie looks 
like that one I saw sitting the other night. All these , 
seem of that kind having long arms and hairy bodies. 
The face of one is toward me and the backs of the 
others. None of them are clothed. One looks like a 
female, with some kind of ornament bound around her 
head. I cannot tell what it is made of. I seem to be 
in about the same place and period that I was the 
other night with that bone, but I do not see any of 
the smooth people, as I did then. 

" In rolling that stone, one of them seems to act as 
overseer ; he seems to be the same tall, ugly one — 
the second I saw the other night. 

" I see a very low entrance to a cave, in which it 
looks quite dark. The front, of it, over the top, has 
an artificial appearance, as if something had been put 
up to make the entrance smaller. The climate is not 
warm all the time ; sometimes, it seems chilly, cold and 
damp. 

" I see now a point of land stretching into a large 
body of water that seems to be the ocean. On this 
side of it are many people down by the water. I 
wonder if that long weapon I saw the other day was 
not for spearing fish? I see one of these people hold- 
ing up something in his hand, as if for some one at a 
distance to see. Another one is bent over. They 
seem to have a monstrous fish on the land which re- 
quires several of them to manage. Its mouth is open, 
and seems full of sharp, white teeth. 

" Toward that point of land are more persons than 
here. Some of them have dresses on that reach from 



212 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

the shoulders to the knee, and are fastened at the 
waist ; some are shorter, and others are unfastened at 
the waist. * I think they are the skins of animals. 
They seem to be fishing, and are not very particular 
about what they catch. These are the smooth-skinned 
people, and the others are, I believe, either their pris- 
oners or slaves that work for them. There is more 
intellect and craft among these, and they have a 
greater range of ideas. There is more calculation 
and cunning about them. The others seem inefficient 
compared with them; they may become terribly en- 
raged, but they lack ability to accomplish much. 
These are shorter and stouter people ; they have 
round faces, low foreheads, but not with that protrud- 
ing ridge I saw in the others ; they have flat heads, 
and nothing like beard or whiskers. The fairest of 
them have a dark, tawny look. I do not like them, 
they are so designing and selfish. They are largely 
in the majority here I find, and they are the same 
r peode I saw the other night. 

" I had a glimpse of an awful-looking creature just 
then, with his hair hanging all around his face. He 
has an ugly-looking face, and his hair is terribly tan- 
gled. 

u I see more animals penned up that look somewhat 
like oxen, but with thicker skins and less hair ; they 
are of monstrous size. 

"I see faces of some animals that resemble our dogs, 
yd they differ from them considerably; but they are 
more like dogs (han any other animals with which I 
am acquainted." 



EARLY MEN OP ENGLAND. 213 

EXPERIMENT LXXXII. 

Another bone from the same locality, gnawed by some 
small rodent ; the bone seen, and the circumstances of 
its discovery known. 

" The first thing I see is one of those hairy men sit- 
ting with his back against a tree. The same things 
come up that I saw with the other specimens, or nearly 
so ; but I see the animals more distinctly. A great 
many are visible. One kind that I see resemble 
oxen, and have very large and long horns ; they are 
larger than my arm, curve upward on each side of the 
head, and have two or three twists in them. I see one 
about as high as an ox, but smaller. It looks young, 
has no horns, and seems like a calf; it has the look of 
a yearling. So many objects crowd upon me, I am un- 
able to describe them. One animal, that I suppose to 
be an ox, has frowzy hair, and thick horns, heavier 
than the others I have seen, but not as long. 

" This must be a horse that I see now. Yes, I see 
two of those men on the back of one ; they are going 
with great speed. They seem to have something to 
guide it with ; but I do not know what. 

" I see a long string of skulls of different animals ; 
they are hanging against the face of the rock; the 
first looks like a human skull. 

" Several of those hairy ones are here ; first at work, 
and then at play. Now, I see them climbing up a rock 
as if pursued by something. (The pictures come up 
in such abundance, I cannot disentangle them. In 
whatever direction I look, figures are darting to and 
fro, singly or in groups; but so rapidly that I cannot 
describe them.) " 



214 TEE SOUL OF THINGS. 

I advised her to lay the specimen down and try if 
she could see them without. 

" Now, they seem less than the natural size, and just 
as if they were pictures. That is strange ! it seems 
to me as if they were painted on the outside of my 
forehead, and I were just looking at them so. I almost 
turned round to ask you to look at them, they are so 
plain. Now, they appear more natural, and move more 
slowly than before, though I do not see them as dis- 
tinctly." (She now put the specimen on her forehead 
again, and said she would tell me all she saw as rap- 
idly as she could.) 

"A man lying down. 

"An ox-head. 

"A place marked off, and the ground tracked round. 

" Enclosure, with an animal in it. 

"Another animal, large, unenclosed, and that looks 
tame. 

" The sun shining on the water. 

"A cave, with an arch-like entrance. 

" Now I see a man with a club, and it seems as if 
some kind of fighting were going on. I see one of the 
smooth ones with a club in his uplifted hand. 

" The influences I receive now seem more recent. 
There is more skill manifest; all artistic work seems 
superior, and more genius is apparent. 

" There is a wide and deep river running into the 
sea Dot far from here. I see a place with artificial 
steps like wooden blocks. 

" Now, I sec some of the hairy IMlows working in 
stone One of them is doing something with a very 
largo one. Now ho sits on it, and puts his hands be- 



EARLY MEN OF ENGLAND. 215 

hind hini, and leans back on another to rest. I see 
two in the water wading ; with a pole between them. 
Now there are a number wading out. That is a pleas- 
ant stream, but large and wide." 

As we travel into the night of the past, in search of 
facts regarding the condition of our race at an early 
period of its existence, we find history burning with a 
dim and uncertain light, before we have advanced 
three thousand years ; and if we had history alone to 
guide us, beyond this, in midnight, we should grope 
our uncertain way. But when history can no longer 
be depended upon, archeology comes to our assistance, 
and we continue our journey with light sufficient to 
behold the salient features of the landscape lying be- 
fore us. 

We have learned from archeology that, prior to the 
historic period, men knew the use of iron, and fash- 
ioned it into tools for ordinary use, and weapons of 
war, and this for a long time before history gives any 
record of their doings. We also learn that previous to 
the iron age, there was a bronze age, in which men 
knew not the use of iron, probably, because they had 
not learned to produce heat sufficient to melt it from 
its intractable ores. This bronze age, archeologists 
have discovered, existed for a long time. Lyell says, 
f The number and variety of objects belonging to the 
age of bronze indicate its long duration, as does the 
progress in the arts implied by the rudeness of the ear- 
I Her tools." *■ 

Immeasurably back in the far past, the use of metals 
was unknown; and men fashioned their tools and 

* Lj ell's Antiquity of Man, p. 11. 



216 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

weapons principally of stone. This was the stone age. j 
Already the existence of this stone age has been dem- 
onstrated in Great Britain, France, Denmark, Germany, 
and Switzerland. During the early part of this age, 
gigantic elephants, nearly twice as large as existing ; 
ones, roamed in herds through the forests of Great j 
Britain, France, and Germany. Oxen, of several spe- 
cies now extinct, and some of them of immense size, 
fed in the natural meadows, while tigers, bears, and 
hyenas prowled through the woods in pursuit of their 
prey, or hid from the hot rays of the sun in the dark 
recesses of the rocks. In the rivers, extinct species 
of the rhinoceros and hippopotamus sported, their 
tough hides impervious to the rude weapons of the 
rude men that occupied the land. 

The scenes described in the three preceding experi- 
ments, belong, I think, to this stone age, and give a 
lifelike representation of the people, their condition, 
and pursuits. 

Probably, during the early human period, man had 
attained the highest point of comparative civilization 
in Central Asia ; and from that, as a centre, wave after 
wave rolled westward over Europe, as the desire for 
change, or need of wider territory, or love of conquest, 
or the persecution of a dominant race, compelled 
them. Finding a people inferior to themselves in form, 
color,and intellectual ability, they enslaved them, after 
taking possession of their lands by the right of the 
strongest; themselves to be supplanted at-some future 
time by another wave of humanity, as much in advance 
oC them as they were of their predecessors. Just as : 
in the presenl day Hie Arabs have overrun North- 



EAKLY MEN OF ASIA. 217 

em Africa, enslaving the negroes ; and the French, in 
their turn, are driving them out and occupying their 
domain. The conquest of Great Britian by the Ro- 
mans, the first of which authentic history speaks, was 
probably but one of a number that had preceded it, 
during what may be termed the pre-historic period. 

EXPERIMENT LXXXUI. 

Small fragment of obsidian, from Mount Ararat. 
Mrs. Denton saw it, but thought it was coal. 
w I am near a soft, wet place ; below me it is marshy. 
On one side is a steep ridge, and on the side of that, a 
square hole, lined with poles or sticks ; they do not 
seem to have been hewn. There are different animals 
around, which seem to be much afraid. One, with 
slender body and legs, looks like a deer, but is taller. 
Some are larger still, and more clumsy-looking. One 
is as large as a hog, but is in shape like a mole. An- 
other has a broad face, curved horns, and peculiar 
curled hair ; it looks frowzy and quite fierce. 

" The strangest sight of all comes up. It is a man- 
I like animal ; it is pursuing the other animals, and that 
I is the reason they run, and are so afraid. This animal 
.built that place I saw, I believe. I see one in the dis- 
tance now; he has something on his head; and another 
.; with something in his hand or paw, — the left one, — 
1 which he swings. His head is very angular. I seem 
tto see the dawn of thought, as he holds that out, and 
watches it swing. It is a wild animal, and he holds it 
by the entrails, I believe ! His arms are long as legs, 
<and covered with hair ; but the face is nearly smooth, 
yet looks fuzzy. The color is dark, but has an olive 



218 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

tinge. This one has some mirthfulness about him. 
Oh, oh, what a yell ! I never heard anything equal to 
it. It thrills me, and I fairly tremble. Yet it had a 
kind of silvery ring to it. The mouth of this animal 
is crescent-shaped. It has a very large nose, three or 
four times the size of a man's ; it is rounded and very 
prominent, and seems in keeping with the face and 
head. The forehead goes up and back to a ridge, giv- 
ing it a triangular shape." 

If my thought were at all concerned in the produc- 
tion of these pictures, on this occasion the vision 
would certainly have differed most widely from the 
one presented. I was looking at the time for a vol- 
canic eruption and its accompanying phenomena ; and 
was very much surprised, as I have frequently been, 
at the difference between what was presented, and 
what was expected. 

EXPERIMENT LXXXIV. 

Small flint arrow-head, found near Chesterfield, Mad- 
ison County, Indiana. 

Mrs. Giles, of Randolph, Cattaraugus County, New 
York. 

" I go south to the water's edge, but cannot cross it. 
I see grass of a yellow color, a few trees, and various 
small animals that I am not familiar with. I see pieces 
of rock in the earth that look something like glass. 

"Now, I see a wilderness; there are no trees cut 
down, and in its depths arc birds, snakes, and bears. I j 
see a village also, and pass through it; it is built of 
bark and skins, and what looks like cloth. There are 
a good many men near it. I see no women. The men 



FLINT ARROW-HKAT). 219 

are. poorly dressed, almost naked. The skins they 
wear look rough; some are worn with the hide out, 
and some with the fur. They have nothing on their 
heads, and their skins are dark-colored. Now I see 
more of them ; they look* lazy, dirty and shiftless. 
They really don't seem to know anything. Their 
foreheads are small, and their heads run up to the 
crown, sugar-loaf shape. They have large noses, 
large mouths, and thick lips.' 7 In reply to a question 
she said, " I should not call them Indians ; they are 
lighter-colored, and short and thickset. They look 
more like monkeys than any human beings I ever saw. 

" I see a woman now ; she has a loose skin in front 
of her breast, and another round her hips that is fast. 
There is a small hut ; I have to stoop to enter it. In 
one corner I see grass and stuff, where I suppose they 
lie. Here is a larger hut ; I will go in. I see square 
stones that seem intended for seats. There is a place 
made of stones for a fire, and I see one burning, and 
meat, with a pole stuck through it, cooking. The bed 
in this hut has skins on it. I see a woman with orna- 
ments in her ears ; she has nice furs on. 

" A man is pounding against the side of a tree with a 
stone to loosen the bark. The stone is sharp at one 
end and thick at the other ; he pounds with the large 
end, and cuts with the other. He has a rough kind of 
basket into which he piles the bark. 

" There are spots as large as a house here and there, 
that seem to have been cleared for cultivation." 

A very life-like picture of the aboriginal times. 
Mrs. Giles assured me that she did not know what the 
specimen was till the examination was over. 



220 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 



EXPERIMENT LXXXV. 



Piece of encrinal limestone, obtained near the res- 
ervoir at the foot of Mount Royal, Montreal. Mrs. 
Denton knew it came from somewhere in the neighbor- 
hood of Montreal, but not what it was. 

" I see a tremendous waterfall, of great breadth, wi- 
der than any river that I ever saw. Niagara, from 
what I have heard of it, must be a baby in compari- 
son. There seems to be a good deal of what looks 
like steam. I see beams of light that shine through 
it,* at the lowest part it is dark, but higher up the 
light is more diffused through it. Those shafts of 
light that dart through it remind me of lightning, they 
are so clear and well-defined. 

" I am under the fall now ; there is an arch of rock 
overhead, but I do not see the water. The archway 
is extensive ; it is a great open place. The light in 
the water seems to vibrate. 

" There is that fall again. What a tremendous fall 
it is ! it seems to hold me. A rock rises up in or near 
the centre of it, high and steep. It is water-worn all 
round, and is smaller at the bottom than higher up. 
The fall must have been miles wide. (It is difficult to 
shut out modern influences.) 

" I wonder if this has not been exposed to heat. 
What can have made it so hot? 

" I see animals resembling crinoids." 

At the time this examination was made, I did not 
know that Mount Royal was composed, to a considera- 
ble, extent, of (rap, sent up from below in a heated 
condition, of course; but when I learned ibis, the 
heat that Mrs. Denton recognized was readily ex- 



TEAP, MOUNT EOYAL. 221 

plained ; the trap lying in place but a few rods from 
where I obtained the specimen. 

EXPERIMENT LXXXVT. 

A few days, afterward, tried a piece of trap from the 
top of Mount Royal. Specimen seen, and its locality 
known. 

" I can see the St. Lawrence plainer than when I 
was on the Mount, and parts of the city fully as plain. 
I cannot see the bridge distinctly ; I merely see a dark 
line across the water. I should not have known what 
it was, if I had not seen it before. 

" Now I am a little way back in time from the pres- 
ent occupation of the country. It looks very wild ; 
the water rolls on, with no human being present. 
How lonely ! There is no steeple in town nearly as 
high as the rock on that island; it was magnificent. 
It looks very craggy on top, as I go back in time. 

" Now, I see a fall, — very wide ; there are rocks in 
it higher than the general bed over which the water 
dashes. I can hear the rushing of that stream ; the 
roar is terrible. There is a hollow sound, too, that I 
cannot account for, but I think it comes from there. 
It is the broadest sweep of water in the shape of a 
river that I ever saw, but I do not think it was as 
deep then as now." 

EXPERIMENT LXXXVIL 

When in Montreal, I broke from the first pier of the 
Victoria Bridge, on the north side of the river, and on 
the east side of the pier, a small fragment of lime- 
stone ; this, about six weeks afterward, I gave to Mrs. 

19* 



222 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

Denton, who did not see it, had no idea of the charac- 
ter of it, and knew not that I had any such specimen. 

" I see a point extending into the water, and vessels 
around it ; and I see another point farther away that 
has buildings upon it. Now I see high cliffs. There 
seems to be a kind of archway here, but I cannot tell 
yet what it belongs to. It looks, however, like a tun- 
nel, and yet like a bridge. I do not know what to call 
it. I am looking through the arched entrance, and 
that is the appearance presented. There are hills in 
the distance. There is a city here. 

" I see now what this is ; it is a long bridge over a 
stream. Down the stream I see that high pinnacle on 
an island that I saw once when we were at Montreal. 
This must be from the long bridge at Montreal.'' 1 

If Mrs. Denton had been placed bodily on the spot 
where I obtained the specimen, she could hardly have 
described more accurately the principal features of the 
view presented from it. There is a point of land on 
the lower side of the bridge, which was either made or 
enlarged during the building of the bridge, and used 
as a wharf for vessels that were employed in convey- 
ing material for its construction. The bridge ap- 
peared long, of course, for it is the longest bridge in 
the world. The iron tube, of which the body of the 
bridge is composed, has very much the appearance of 
a tunnel when looked into from the end. The high 
pinnacle referred f«> is the same as that noticed by her 
in the last experiment; and it is a little remarkable 
that it was not the presenl appearances observed that 
determined the locality of the specimen, but an ap- 
pearance that has had do actual existence forages; 



ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. 223 

for it was the observance of this remarkable pinnacle 
of rock that enabled her to determine that the speci- 
men was from Montreal. 

EXPERIMENT LXXXVUl. 

Since the discovery of petroleum, or rock oil, in 
such great abundance in Western Pennsylvania, Can- 
ada West, and other localities, much interest has been 
excited in reference to it, and many theories of its ori- 
gin propounded. One supposes that it is the oleagi- 
nous matter from antediluvian whales, buried in the 
localities where the oil is discovered ; another, that it 
is the drippings of coal-beds ; subject to enormous 
pressure, they are supposed to yield oil, as a cake of 
linseed subjected to the power of a hydraulic press ; 
and hence the occurrence of this oil in beds underly- 
ing coal. Others again believe that the oil was driven 
by heat from beds of coal into the neighboring rocks ; 
the coal after parting with its oil assuming the form 
of anthracite. A wilder theory is, that the oil was 
driven out of coal by heat, in the condition of vapor, 
condensed in the upper, cold atmosphere, and rained 
down in greasy showers ; and thus it is found in locali- 
ties where there is no coal in the vicinity. Some, de- 
spairing of finding any philosophic solution of the 
question, tell us that God made it when it best pleased 
him, and we must receive it thankfully, asking no 
questions. 

It will be seen that most of these theories assume 
that the coal-beds are the source of the oil. The rea- 
son may be, that an oil, somewhat resembling petro- 
leum, can be obtained from coal by distillation : though 



224 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 






that consideration should not bo allowed to outweigh 
the stern facts that are in complete opposition to this 
favorite idea. 

In the neighborhood of Titusville, Pennsylvania, 
where the oil was first discovered in the United States 
in large quantities, it is obtained by boring into shales 
belonging to the Chemung group of the Devonian for- 
mation ; and in these shales, which are at least six or 
seven hundred feet below the Coal Measures, the oil is 
sometimes obtained at a depth of six hundred feet; 
and when obtained, frequently rushes to the surface 
with great violence ; showing clearly that the fountain 
supplying it lies still deeper. There is no coal in the 
immediate vicinity, the nearest being more than twenty 
miles distant. The beds between the coal and the 
shales, in which the oil is found, consisting of sand- 
stones and conglomerate principally, it is difficult to 
conceive of oil soaking through them and travelling 
twenty or thirty miles to the spot where it is now 
found. 

In Canada West, about twenty miles east of Port 
Sarnia, petroleum is found in the greatest abundance. 
The whole country seems to rest on a lake of oil, which 
has burst through at some time and flooded the land ; 
when, the volatile parts evaporating, the ground for 
acres has become covered with asphaltum, in places 
two feet thick. Ilore wo should certainly expect coal, 
according to the common theories; but when wo ex- 
amine the limestone underlying the deep bed of drift 
clay, which covers that part of the country, we find in 
it the characteristic shells of the Devonian formation, 
and discover that it is one of the members of the Ham- 



ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. 225 

ilton gronp of that formation. It lies, therefore, still 
lower geologically than the Pennsylvania oil ; and as, 
on boring into the limestone, the oil is found in greater 
abundance and of better quality, it is evident that the 
source of its supply lies deeper still. There is no coal 
nearer than the Michigan coal basin, probably seventy 
miles distant ; and there, the thickest coal seam is not 
more than- four feet, which, under no circumstances, 
could yield oil enough to flow half a mile toward the 
Canadian petroleum region. 

At Louisville this oil, so readily recognized by its 
peculiar smell, may be seen in the limestone rocks 
blasted out in forming the ship canal ; rocks laid down 
ages before the Coal Measures were deposited. In 
Chicago, where I have observed it floating on the sur- 
face of water in a limestone quarry, and where the 
limestone is thoroughly saturated with it, we find it in 
the Lower Silurian ; as we do near Hamilton,, jn Can- 
ada West, and many other localities. 

It is most evident, then, that this oil does not pro- 
ceed from coal. What does it proceed from ? After 
visiting the Titusville oil wells, in Pennsylvania, on 
the breaking out of the oil excitement in that region, 
I sent a piece of the shale, obtained from one of the 
wells, to Mrs. Denton, requesting her to see what psy- 
chometry could do towards revealing the mystery of 
the origin of this remarkable product. The following 
I received by mail : — 

" All is perfect darkness around me ; I do not think 
I shall see anything to-night. In a twinkling the dark- 
ness is gone, and I find myself deep underground ; 
how deep, I cannot tell, but I feel a great weight 
above me. 



226 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

" In front of me, at my right, at my left, and appar- 
ently behind me, though I do not see that distinctly, is 
a gorgeous scene. I seem to stand in a perfect forest 
of— (what shall I term it?) I know of nothing that it 
resembles, in its general structure, but the coral for- 
ests I have seen, when examining fossil coral; and again, 
a portion of its structure resembles the honeycomb 
more nearly than anything else to which I can compare 
it. The cells are, however, different in form, having a 
hanging appearance, the lower portion of each cell 
being more extended, and somewhat smoother and 
rounder than the upper extremity. These cells, when 
entire, seem filled with a liquid ; but many, great mul- 
titudes of them, in the part of the forest next me, have 
been crushed and broken, and the whole space, or 
nearly so, is filled with this expressed liquid. 

" In many places this coralline forest seems to prop 
the roof, or stratum, above ; and in every direction, 
through this grove, I see clusters and groups reflect- 
ing all the colors of the rainbow, and presenting most 
beautiful and singularly effective arrangements. The 
liquid is readily distinguishable from water by the 
appearance ; but, aside from that, there is the taste and 
effect of being in communication with oil. I do not 
know what may be above or below this, but here, at 
least, I see no appearance of coal, or the vegetation of 
which coal is funned, though I have looked faithfully 
for it." 

In several oil districts she has observed similar ap- 
pearances, and od more than one occasion watched the 
coral polyps as they filled their cells with the oil se- 
'1 from the impure waters of the early oceans. 



ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. 227 

My own observations corroborate Mrs. Denton's psy- 
chometric views. I have found a reef of fossil coral 
belonging to the genus favosites, with the oil dripping 
out of it, within eight miles of Buffalo ; and near Wil- 
liarnsville, in the centre of solid limestone blocks, are 
multitudes of corals, the cells of which are filled with 
this oil, which is visible noiuliere but in these cells. In 
the New York Geological Rooms, Albany, is a fine 
specimen of oil-bearing coral, marked Favosites Goth- 
landica, Erie County, from which the oil has dripped 
to the bottom of the case. I saw several specimens 
in the geological rooms at Montreal. 

I have no doubt whatever that this oil owes its ori- 
gin to the coral polyps, principally of the Silurian and 
Devonian periods. They seem to have accomplished a 
work analogous to that performed by the plants of the 
Carboniferous period ; they purified the water as the 
plants did the air; and though no oil-bearing corals 
may exist in the ocean at the present time, it may be 
because the material from which the oil was obtained 
is exhausted, and the family of oil-bearing corals has 
become extinct. I know of no living corals whose 
cells at all resemble those of the oil-secreters, where 
was deposited this very valuable article, which by heat 
and pressure has been driven out of its original recep- 
tacles into crevices and reservoirs, where it is at pres- 
ent found. By long exposure many of the original oil- 
containing corals have lost their oil, and hence their 
cells are frequently found empty. 

EXPERIMENT LXXX1X. 

If caves can be examined psychometrically, and 



228 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

their windings traced, why not mines and mineral 
veins ? Many persons have existed who professed to 
have the ability of seeing objects deep buried in the 
earth, and I have no doubt that, in some cases, these 
professions were in accordance with the truth. In 
the Seeress of Prevorst, it is said, quoting from Del 
Rio, that in Spain there is a race of people called Zo- 
huris, who can see things hidden under the earth, as 
water, veins of metal, and dead bodies. , Gamasche, a 
Portuguese, who lived in the beginning of the eigh- 
teenth century, had the faculty of discovering water 
and metals at a considerable depth under ground. 
Zschokke, the well-known German author, says : — 
" In almost every canton of Switzerland are found 
persons endowed with the mysterious natural gift of 
discovering by a peculiar sensation the existence of 
subterranean waters, metals, or fossils. I have known 
many of them, and often put their marvellous talents 
to the proof. One of these was the Abbot of the Con- 
vent of St. Urban, in the canton of Lucerne, a man of 
learning and science ; and another, a young woman, 
who excelled all I have ever known. I carried her 
and her companion with me through several districts 
entirely unknown to her, but with the geological for- 
mation of which, and witli the position of its salt and 
sweel waters. I was quite familiar, and I never found 
her deceived. The results of the most careful obser- 
vation have compelled meal length to renounce the 
obstinate auspicioD and incredulity I at first felt on this 
subject, and have presented me with a new phase of 
nature, although one still involved in enigmatical ob- 
scurity. To detail circumstantially every experiment 



COPPER, LAKE SUPERIOR. 229 

[ made to satisfy myself on this point, would take up 
too much space at present ; but I think it right to 
mention some of the cases which led me occasionally 
to vary from others in my views of nature and of 
God."* 

Catherine Crowe says, in her Night Side of Nature, 
" Numerous cases are met with, in which metals or 
water are perceived beneath the surface of the earth. 
A man called Bleton, from Dauphine, possessed the 
divining power in a remarkable degree, as did a Swiss 
girl, called Katherine Beutler. She was strong and 
healthy, and of a phlegmatic temperament, yet so sus- 
ceptible of these influences that without the rod she 
pointed out and traced the course of water, veins of 
metal, coal-beds, salt mines, &c." 

Our experiments confirm these statements remark- 
ably, demonstrating as they do the possession of this 
wonderful and valuable power. 

On visiting the Lake Superior copper region, some 
years ago, I brought from there a number of speci- 
mens, which I submitted to Mrs. Cridge and Mrs. Den- 
ton for examination ; they, as before, having no previ- 
ous knowledge of the specimen, which was carefully 
concealed from view when a sight of it could give 
any clue to its character. 

A piece of conglomerate from the bed of Eagle 
River, and one mile from the Phoenix Copper Mine. 

Mrs. Cridge. 

"I feel the influence of copper, but very slight. 
The vapor of the metal must have passed into this. I 
should say this came from next to the copper. I can 

*Life of Zscliokke, p. 143. 
20 



230 THE SOUL OF THIXGS. 

see a vein of copper; it is not more than eighteen 
inches thick in the thickest place, and seems to extend 
a mile." 

Whether there is copper beneath this conglomerate 
or not, I cannot say ; but from the fact that it is found 
so immediately in the vicinity, and that the psychom- 
eter had not the slightest idea of the locality whence 
the specimen was derived, I think it more than prob- 
able. The copper region of Lake Superior has not 
been one hundredth part explored yet. 

EXPERIMENT XC 

When at Copper Harbor, I picked up, from a gravel- 
bed near the burying-ground, about half a mile from 
the lake, a fine specimen of crystallized quartz, which 
was also examined by my sister. 

" I feel the influence of copper. This came from 
near the lake, and near the surface, and beneath it is 
loose rock or gravel for twelve or fifteen feet. Be- 
neath that is a brown stratum, quite thin, not more 
than a foot thick ; then trap-rock, very deep; it must be 
sixty or seventy feet. I see something yellow in that 
trap ; it does not look like copper ; it is not in veins, 
but scattered around. 

u A little from there, toward the west, the trap rises 
and comes to the surface. There is copper beneath 
the trap, but it is only a thin vein." 

About two hundred yards from where I picked up 
the specimen the trap does come to the surface, and a 
Large cliff of it overlooks the harbor. The yellow 
substance thai she saw was probably the sulphuret 
of copper, which she had not previously seen, either 



COPPER, LAKE SUPERIOR. 231 

psycliometrically or otherwise. It is obtained at a 
mine about half a mile from the spot where the speci- 
men was found. 

EXPERIMENT XCL 

I found near the»mouth of Eagle Biver, on the Lake 
Superior shore, a small pebble of amygdaloidal trap, 
with a speck of copper in it about as large as a pin's 
head. The pebble is somewhat angular, however, and 
a person would hardly suppose that it had been rolled 
by water. 

Mrs. Cridge. 

" I seem to be standing on the shore of the lake, 
arid before me the water spreads inimitably. Banks 
rise to the left, and behind me. The strata seem to 
have been cut away, so that all lies exposed. I see 
great masses of copper lying bare against the side 
of the cliff. This seems to have been broken from 
the cliff above the copper. Near there, is a copper 
vein dividing into three branches, and extending for 
half a mile. It is thickest near the cliff, and is pure 
copper." 

EXPERIMENT XCn. 

I determined to try this specimen again, and dis- 
cover what it would reveal to another psychometer, 
who was totally unacquainted with it, and equally so 
with the examination that had been made. 

Mrs. Denton. 

" I see water. Now I see, but it cannot be right, a 
vessel with sails. 

" I seem to be standing some distance above the 



232 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

shore, and either there is an island in the distance, or 
the land stretches out. 

"I see a man in dark clothes, sitting on a rock, look- 
ing at the water ; and now I see a steamboat. 

" I am at the place where this was broken off. I 
see a vein filled with pure copper? It comes out in 
a cliff, and extends apparently for a mile, never run- 
ning very far from the lake. The cliff, I should think, 
is one hundred and fifty feet high, and the copper is 
some distance from the foot of it. Pine trees grow all 
over the land, but they look small. 

I see another vein larger than that, — thicker and 
deeper. It heads about on the same level as this, but 
to the west of it ; both veins, as it appears to me, go to 
the southeast ; the last more than the first. This vein 
has large rugged masses in it ; but it is not as contin- 
uously rich as the first." 

EXPERIMENT XCIII. 

Six weeks after this, many specimens from various 
localities having been examined in the mean time, I 
tried the same specimen again. 

" This seems to have been moved through the water 
with a wavy motion. It has been moved a consider- 
able distance by the waves." (In what direction?) 

u I cannot tell. I am surprised, for I see a boat on 
water, some distance from me, — a steamboat. 

" I Bee shining metal that looks like gold, or copper 
with the sun shining upon it; and it is a good deal 
like ;» place (hat I have soon before. There is a long 
line of copper at my left. I seem to have a night view 
of it; but the copper is very bright. This must be a 
specimen thai I tried once before." 



COPPER, LAKE SUPERIOR. 233 

- I Gould not deny it, and thus the experiment termi- 
nated ; but Mrs. D. said that on first trying it, she had 
not the most distant suspicion of what it was. 

EXPERIMENT XC1V. 

Nearly a year after this time, I broke the pebble, 
that it might not be recognized, and gave a small frag- 
ment of it to Mrs. Denton, for examination again. 

Nothing seen or known. 

" Many scenes pass before me like lightning. They 
are principally water scenes ; they seem to carry me 
back to the Silurian period. I see rocks projecting 
into the water, the sea occasionally passing over them ; 
and in the sea are myriads of living forms of an infe- 
rior grade of organization." (I do not wish the paleo- 
zoic impressions.) " I go to the land. It seems as if 
the earth was all open. To my left are rocks that 
seem two hundred feet high. I am away clown in a 
crevice, and there is a narrow continuation of it for a 
long way below me. It seems as if the rocks all round 
me had been shivered into fragments ; crevices and 
veins run in every direction. I am now at an immense 
depth. I see fire ; no, not fire exactly, but liquid mat- 
ter in motion ; it is of a deeper color than flame. I 
must be a long way down. The molten matter pours 
up like a tremendous fiery spring. I follow it up, but 
it does not rise to the surface of the earth. There are 
long crevices, filled with this matter, off to my left. 
They seem to be to the south of me. 

" I stand with my face to the west. The fluid mat- 
ter in the crevices is now hard ; it is metal of some 
kind ; but whether gold or copper, I cannot tell. There 



234 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

is a gas arising from it that gives me the feeling of 
copper to some extent ; but the metal has a pure look 
like gold, and I feel almost sure that it is ; but what 
an enormous amount ! These crevices that I am trac- 
ing are hundreds if not thousands of feet below the 
surface." (Turned the specimen over.) 

" Now I see a vein of copper. This is higher up 
and near the surface. There is a great difference be- 
tween this and the other. This I know to be copper ; 
there are several veins. Some seem to come very 
near, if not quite, to the surface. Some of the veins 
are very large. 

" I seem to stand and look through the earth for 
miles, as if it were transparent as water, only the 
metallic veins obstructing my vision. The veins look 
skeleton-like, all standing up and ramifying in every 
direction. What a singular sight ! There is a good 
deal of dark trap beyond that, in which there is no 
metal for a long way." 

The Potsdam sandstone may be seen at the outlet 
of Lake Superior, at Sault St. Marie, and also along the 
southern shore. It is the only fossiliferous rock that 
ia known in that region. Back to the period when 
this was laid down flics the psychomotor, views the 
tepid ocean swarming with animals of strange forms 
and inferior organization; then, turning to the land, 
dives into the heart of the earth, and sees the gur- 
gling Hoods of molten gold come rushing through its 
veins. It i* not unlikely that the massive copper de- 
posits, for which Lake Superior is so justly famous, are 
underlaid by e^ual or still more remarkable deposits 
of gold. Free to arrange themselves according to 



GOLD, CALIFORNIA. 235 

their specific gravities, the heavier metals would as- 
sume the lowest place ; and when the Lake Superior 
region shall have been mined as long as the tin and 
copper region of Cornwall, it may be more famous for 
gold than it is now for copper. 

EXPERIMENT XCV. 

I have two small specimens of gold obtained from 
the diggings at Pike's Flat, California. I gave one to 
Mrs. Cridge, which she saw, but knew nothing of its 
history. 

" I seem to be in a country that is level or flat, but 
there are hills all around at a distance. There is gold 
here, near or on the surface. I don't like the look of 
the country, it is so wild and broken ; and there is no 
grass. 

"I see men walking around with wheelbarrows. 
They are shovelling dirt into a trough. I see a shaft 
too, and men working at it. The gold does not lie in 
veins there, but is scattered all around in pieces. It 
is not in hard rock, but in soft stuff. In some places 
there are large quantities of gold that seem to have 
been poured into holes and crevices. The shaft is a 
curious one ; I see a long kind of beam that goes 
up and down. The miners have blue smocks on." 

From what I know of Pike's Flat, this is a pretty 
correct description of the place and of the mining 
operations going on there when the specimen was 
obtained. The gentleman from whom I obtained it 
said it was such a description as a person would be 
likely to give, who, having no previous knowledge of 
i mining operations, should see the place. 



236 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

EXPERIMENT XCVL 

But I had another specimen from the same place, 
taken out of the same shaft ; and here was an oppor- 
nity for an excellent test. Would this lead her to the 
same spot, and would she recognize it? This second 
examination was made a month after the first. 

" I can see a river, but it is not deep. The scenery 
around is hilly and broken and somewhat rocky. There 
is a great deal of gravel, and the rock that I see is not 
hard. In that water I can see gold, but in very small 
pieces; it looks as if it had been washed down from 
above. I go to the same place as I did with that other 
specimen. I can see the men at work, the wheelbar- 
rows, shaft, and washer, as before. The washer is a 
long trough into which they put the sand and gravel. 
The men look rough and strong and young. Why I; 
should see that old place again I cannot tell." 

After the examination Avas over, she said she found; 
she was at the same place, and tried her best to get; 
away, assured that she was receiving incorrect impres- 
sions ; but, though she travelled up the valley a short 
distance, she was compelled to return. She was much' 
surprised when told that it came from the same place. 

EXPERIMENT XCVII. 

The same specimen was subsequently tried again 
by another psychomotor, who did not see it and did 
not know what it was. 

Mrs, Taylor* 

"] am on board ship, going back. Now I am on 
land; if is a new country and hilly. I see a stream, 
and banks <>n each side, and off to the right is a vil- 



STXLPIIUSET OF COPPER, BRUCE MINE. 237 

lage. I stand on the right-hand side of the stream. 
Now I see a hole that has been dug through the soil 
and gravel and dirt to the rock. All through the rock 
they have cut into are shining particles. I see men 
digging. How greedily they act ! They look pleased ; 
those shining particles must be gold. There are large 
quantities in that hill. 

" I see. the top of a mountain covered with large 
trees. One mountain goes up to a peak. I see huts 
dotting the country over, near where the men are dig- 
ging. The stream goes off small up into the moun- 
tains." 

EXPERIMENT XCVTH. 

Sulphuret of copper from Canada West. I think 
it was obtained at the Bruce Mine, but I am not cer- 
tain. 

Mrs. Cridge. Had no conception of what it was. 

" It seems as if I were in a tunnel, and I see the 
light at the other end. I am under ground, and yet I 
can see the light and water when I look out. I am 
quite a distance from the mouth. How chilly it is 
here ! This must be a mine. I can see a little track 
laid down, and men about. There is a good deal of 
metal here. The mine is damp. I can see a vein of 
metal, and it differs from all that I have seen before. 
It has a greenish appearance, as I see it stretching 
along. They have cut out the thickest of it, and they 
will not find as much in the direction they are going. 
(They have missed one large branch of the vein where 
the ore is quite thick. They are coming to where the 
vein separates into two branches, neither of them as 



238 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

wide as half the vein they have gone through. The 
metal is not copper, and I do not think it is iron. It 
causes a pain down rny back. I see a g-sntleman and 
lady in the mine examining it." 

Having in previous examinations seen copper only 
in the native or metallic condition, she did not recog- 
nize the greenish yellow ore as being copper. 

EXPERIMENT XCIX. 

Lead ore from near Galena. 

Mrs. Denton. Specimen seen. 

"I seem to be -standing with my face to the west. 
Behind me is a large excavation, at one end of which I 
stand, as if the earth, for some distance and to a con- 
siderable depth, had been removed; I cannot tell how 
deep nor how far in extent behind me. 

" Before me, and extending to my right and left, or 1 
rather N. N. East and S. S. West, for a long way, is a 
vein of metal resembling in all respects, as far as I 
can judge, this piece of lead. I should think large 
blocks as pure as this might be removed without diffi- 
culty. It does not, however, look as I expected to 
iind it ; for, instead of being in one continuous solid 
mass, it appears separated by dust, or something simi- 
lar, into blocks of irregular shape, not thrown care- 
lessly together, but closely packed, the interstices 
being filled with sand or dust. If the appearance in- 
dicates the amount, there must be thousands of tons as 
pure as this. But the most inconsistent feature seems 
to be its nearness to (his excavation, and, at the same 
time, its undisturbed appearance. Not a grain of it 
8 seme to have been touched; if rests in perfect quiet" 



THE FIEEY OCEAN. 239 

At the time when this examination was made, nearly 
four years ago, Mrs. D. had never seen a mine of any 
description, nor had I visited any of the lead mines of 
this country ; and I was not aware, until my visit to 
th*e lead region of the Northwest, of the remarkable 
agreement between her description and the actual ap- 
pearance of the large lead deposits throughout that 
region. The galena is found in irregular blocks, not 
thrown carelessly together, but closely packed, the 
interstices being filled with clay or ochreous dust. 

EXFERIMENT C. 

If the psychometer can go down and describe the 
interior of the earth for thousands of feet below the 
surface, why not pass through the earth's crust and 
visit the great fiery ocean, whose waves no human 
eye has ever beheld? For this purpose a specimen 
from some deep mine would, I thought, be favorable, 
and accordingly a piece of copper ore from the Cliff 
Mine, Lake Superior, was chosen. 

Mrs. Cridge. 

'* I am in the mine now, from which this came. It 
is a rich mine, containing much copper. There are 
several branches from the main one, but none that I 
see as large as it." (Go down as far as you can.) "It 
is not very pleasant going down, yet I can go a long 
way. I go down, and then return ; and thus keep flit- 
ting back and forward." (Pause.) 

" I went down an immense distance, passing rock af- 
ter rock, till it seemed all light from the material 
around me. It was not light, however, but I was sur- 
rounded with rock as white as snow, and sparkling. 



240 the soul op things. 

" Now I am below it ; it is dark, dark again. I 
should think I am now three or four miles down. 
What metal I see ! yellow metal ; it is bright as gold. 
It is gold. It seems very dense, and is many yards 
thick. It seems half a mile across, and looks to me as 
if it had once been a lake of gold. This lake is con- 
cave in the centre, so that it forms an immense golden 
amphitheatre. As the gold has cooled and sunk, it has 
left a considerable space between it and the roof, and 
in that space all is dark. 

" I go down again in the centre of that amphithea- 
tre. There must have been an opening here once, for 
I go by a circuitous route. I feel the heat ; it seems 
to take my breath. Every now and then I obtain 
glimpses of flames, as if they came up thus at one 
time. All is dark, dark again; what an Egyptian night 
this is ! 

" I see a faint dawn, becoming every moment bright- 
er and brighter. 

" Now, I am standing on the shore of an ocean of 
still fire. The stillness that hangs over it seems never 
to have been broken. 

" It does move, though ; it ebbs and flows like the 
ocean. I feel much safer than I should have thought 
possible. There is a space, strange to say, between 
this ocean and the superincumbent mass, and in its 
Leavings to and fro it is depositing rock all the time. 

"It is not always calm here; there arc storms at 
when it surges and dashes in fury. This is hell 
indeed ! nothing wanting but the devils." 

Thai the earth was once a molten mass of matter, is 
now almosl universally believed by those who have 



AMETHYSTINE QUAETZ. 241 

made geology a matter of study. Its hot springs, vol- 
canoes, and other phenomena, indicate that its inte- 
rior is in a highly heated state at the present time ; 
and there is no doubt that a condition of things exists 
there very similar to that so graphically described by 
my sister. I have tried to induce other psychometers 
to make a similar journey. As far as they went, their 
descriptions agreed with the one given ; but their ter- 
ror was too great to allow them to reach the goal. 

EXPERIMENT CI. 

Amethystine quartz. 

Mrs. Denton. 

"I see a mound, covered with tall grass and flowers; 
there are three terraces on the sides. At a little dis- 
tance there is a marsh, in which tall reeds and grasses 
grow, that have a straggling appearance. At a dis- 
tance, I see a few very pretty low trees, and a stream." 
(See what is under the surface.) "I do not know 
where I am, but I see metal ; it seems loose, as if in 
sand. It is yellow, and there is a good deal of it, but 
it is in small pieces, like scattered drops ; pretty close 
together in some places, however. I think it is gold ; 
indeed, I feel sure of it. What a tremendous amount ! 
The sand containing it seems to lie in three streams, 
and, at some distance south, I see another stream con- 
taining gold, but the pieces are more scaly, and lie 
nearer the surface." 

At the time when this examination was made, I was 
not aware that gold had been found in the neighbor- 
hood ; but have since learned that it is obtained within 
a few miles of the place where the specimen was 



242 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

found, though in nothing like the abundance that this 
psychometric experiment indicates. 

EXPERIMENT CM. 

A few days afterward I gave the specimen to my 
sister for examination, she knowing nothing of it. 

" I see mountains away off, but it is a plain where I 
am. I see a lot of trees, that look like palms. This 
must be a torrid region. I can see a road that seems 
to have been made. 

" There are rocks below, though it looks sandy 
above. I see gold in great quantities, very near the 
surface, too. There is a good deal among the sand, 
that could be got at very easily." 

It would be very strange if these independent ob- 
servers, with no such idea in their minds, should see 
what had no existence. 

EXPERIMENT CIIL 

About six months afterward I broke the specimen, 
and gave a small piece of it, from the centre, to Mrs. 
Denton ; and though what was seen differed very 
widely from that of the previous examination, it does 
but confirm the truth of its most essential feature. 

" I see a mass of softish material, about the color of 
flame ; there are openings in it of various sizes, and at 
unequal distances. As (lie mass slowly moves, steam 
arises from these openings, or what seems like steam 
to me, and the openings change their shape with the 
motion of the hkiss, but do aot close. The surface 
occasionally a little disturbed,. but there is a feeling of 
real and quiet connected with it. 



AMETHYSTINE QUAETZ. 243 

" Now I see it hard, and it alternates between a hard 
and soft condition several times. Some of the openings 
gradually fill up. I see a body of rock, with long rows 
of nodules of harder rock in it." (How were they 
produced?) "Very slowly. I can see how it was 
done, but it is very difficult to describe. 

" As I watch, there is a terrible convulsion or explo- 
sion, and the rocks are thrown, with most tremendous 
force, into great confusion. Huge caverns are formed 
deep underground. Again all is still, and I observe 
dark gray rocks behind me, and in front, beautiful 
rocks, that are almost transparent. Now, there is 
another grand convulsion. I stand where all is calm, 
but in front of me, miles of the massive rock are 
moved along. It looks as if there was rock enough to 
make a world of. Again all is calm. 

" Now, I see metal ejected from below, a great deal 
of it. I think it is gold. There is little comes up, 
however, compared with the amount below. Much 
sent up, settles down again. One large rock drops 
miles into a profound cavern." 

The interior of a specimen gives most readily its 
early history. On the exterior this is generally ob- 
scured by the impressions more recently received. In 
this case, she seems to have gone back to the time 
when the country was in a condition of intense igne- 
ous activity, and the precious metals were vomited to 
the surface from their grand reservoirs in the interior. 

We obtain a glimpse of the way in which precious 
stones are formed ; by openings in the rock slowly 
filled, probably by segregation from the surrounding 
r ocks, till amethyst, agate, and the more precious ruby, 



THE SOUL OF THINGS. 



emerald, and diamond, are, during long ages, collected 
into nodular or crystalline bodies. 



EXPERIMENT CIV. 



Gold-bearing quartz from Columbian Reef, New En- 
glewood, Victoria, Australia. 

Mrs. Denton. Specimen unseen, and nothing known 
respecting it. 

" I see a rock rising up to the northwest of me. I 
am in a road, where there are trees on one side, and 
off at a little distance the ground seems to rise. This 
country has a pleasant atmosphere ; I like its influ- 
ence. It seems very still. There are hills west of 
me, extending as far as I can see. One chain of them 
comes circling round to where I am. The influence 
of the country is inspiring. 

"Shall I go under ground?" (Yes.) "I do not 
think I can here, but I will try. I obtain the influence 
of some kind of metal, but I do not see it. Now I 
see a white rock, with yellow metal in it, in all manner 
of shapes. It looks as I have seen metal when melted 
and thrown into the water. I can see one large, une- 
ven mass, that looks as if it had received two or three 
twists when soft. It looks like gold. There is one 
mass of rock with thin flakes all through it, and another 
with the dust distributed through it; this extends a 
long way. There is more gold toward those hills. 
The rock scorns disturbed here; they have been dig- 
ging, and have come near that large mass, if (hey have 
Dot obtained it. 

" The gold is not in a vein, at least I should not call 
jl that ; l>uf il leads along for many miles, though there 



GOLD, AUSTRALIA. 2-±5 

are several breaks in it, where it seems to have been 
cut off; and in these places there is no gold at all; so 
that a person might readily suppose that they were at 
the end of the profitable lead, when it was by no 
means the case. Many places around here have been 
disturbed. There is another lead off, farther to the 
south, that has a good deal of gold in it, but I cannot 
go to it. 

" Toward the hills they would have to dig deeper ; 
here, it seems to be quite near the surface. 

" The atmosphere of this country is soft and balmy. 
There is a good deal of fine, warm, hazy, rich weather, 
and it is continuous. 

" That part of the lead which they have disturbed 
seems quite small ; it is nothing compared with the 
undisturbed portion of it. It is narrow where they 
have been working, but very much wider near the 
hills, though broken and cut off here and there. Quite 
near the hills it is one continuous lead, and seems 
very rich. In digging here, they have gone in the 
wrong direction for getting the greatest amount of 
gold, owing, I suppose, to a break or interruption 
near, which is quite wide. Beyond that, however, it 
continues on, but dips lower and lower the farther it 
goes. 57 

I wrote to the gentleman from whom I received the 
specimen, and sent this description, requesting him to 
let me know whether it was correct as far as he knew. 
I have not heard from him, but have little doubt of its 
accuracy, from my general knowledge of the aurifer- 
ous deposits of Australia. The specimens obtained at 
the Columbian Reef are the richest gold specimens I 
ever saw. 



246 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

EXPERIMENT CV. 

Silver ore from the Washoe mines, California. 

Mrs. Denton. For a test I requested her to look for 
oil. 

" I see coral. Has this been lying near coral ? I 
think so, for the appearance of the coral is shadowy " 
(It had been in my pocket for several weeks along 
with a piece of oil-bearing coral ; both, however, 
wrapped in paper.) 

" I see eight or nine layers of rock, with the edges 
towards me ; there is a thin, dark layer between every 
one. There is a curved, open place in them that 
seems to have been dug out. 

" I am away off now. There is gas here. It seems 
as if it would suffocate me. The gas is thick, of a 
purple color, with an orange tint at the edges. It 
must be different from oil gas ; there is some metal 
with it. I cannot see anything, for gas. Do you wish 
me to look for oil ? There does not seem to be any oil 
about it?" (Told her what it was.) " There is a great 
deal of ore there, but I do not think they have found 
the richest place yet. Standing with my face to the 
southwest, to the left there is a vein of ore like this 
specimen; but to the right there is one with pure silver 
in it in masses." 

I am not acquainted with the Washoe region, so 
cannot speak of the correctness of this, beyond its gen- 
eral accuracy, which all can sec. 

EXPERIMENT CVI. 

When travelling through the lead region of Wiscon- 
sin, Mrs. Denton indicated a spot as being very rich 



LEAD, WISCONSIN. 247 

in lead ore, where a " sucker hole " had been dug for 
a few feet, in search, of lead, and then abandoned. I 
brought from the place a piece of chert, resolved to 
test it at some future time. 

Let it be remembered that -the specimen was not 
seen by the psychometer, nor had she any knowledge 
of it whatever. 

" There is an immense amount of lead ore here. I 
see a vein with tiff,* much lead, and a little ochre, in a 
compact rock. Higher up there is a good deal of lead> 
but in no crevice; it is in blocks, and looks so like 

's place, on that hill by the timber, that I cannot 

trust myself to speak of it. This is a rich place, and 
does not seem to have been disturbed much, if any. 
The vein seems a good deal deeper than the other part. 
The lead extends over a large territory ; I can see it 
in a great many places." 

This description agreed precisely with that given 
by her when we were at the spot. Lead has been ob- 
tained in considerable abundance within a quarter of a 
mile. 

EXPERIMENT CVIL 

A month afterward I broke a small fragment from 
the same specimen, for a farther trial. As before, 
nothing was known of it. 

" I seem to be in a mine, as near as I can tell. I 
cannot tell whether it has been worked where I am or 
not. There has been digging here. I can see lead, 
however, that does not seem to have been touched. 
They do not seem to have got to it. I feel positive 

* A term used by the miners for carbonate of lime. 



248 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 






they have not got down to the lead ; -it is undisturbed 
and there is a great deal of it. It does not seem to be 
very far to it. They could not go very deep without 
finding it. It lies in large slabs or blocks. 

" I know where I am, now that I am on the surface. 

I am at 's place." (Designating the same place 

as in her previous description.) " The whole lead 
region seems spread like a map before me. I view it 
for miles. The most lead lies north of where this 
came from. There is a perfect mountain of lead north; 
rising somewhere near the surface, and dipping toward 
the east. The lead in other places seems to be in 
drops compared with this. There is, however, a good 
deal where this came from, and I am sure it came from 
's place." 



EXPERIMENT CV1IL 



When at Mineral Point, we examined a number of 
specimens connected with the lead mines of that re- 
gion, nor did Mrs. Denton know that copper was found 
in that part of the country. Having obtained a speci- 
men of rock entirely free from ore, from the copper 
mine, about two miles east of the town, I gave it to 
her for a trial, she supposing it to be connected with 
some lead mines in the vicinity. 

" It does not look like lead here. I see rock with 
metal in it that looks like silver. 77 (Some of the sul- 
phurets obtained from the mine have that appearance.) 
"It is not, disposed Like lead; it is in small piecesafew 
inches Ion,--: not thick like lead. I see a crevice now. 
There is a good <li i ;il of ore, mixed with earthy matter, 
scattered through it; it is not pure like lead. The 



GOLD, pike's peak. 249 

crevice seems to have a northwestern direction. I see 
a place where another crevice joins, and they both 
widen, making quite a large opening where there is a 
great deal of ore. One of the walls of the crevice is 
split into a number of columns, that are so even they 
have quite an artificial appearance. The interstices 
between them are filled with ore. 

" There is something else here. I can taste it. It 
is copper. There is a vein of it mixed with other 
material a little way from the crevice, or else it is the 
same crevice a little farther on. It is not alone; there 
seems to be silver with it, though it may noFbe ; it is 
white and bright. There are several small veins within 
a short distance of each other. 

" Deep down I see a great cave that has a Brilliant 
appearance ; it glistens all over, for it is lined with 
crystals, some of them large. There is a purple vapor 
in it.' 7 

This mine has never paid for working, and probably 
never will. There is a fissure in the limestone, in 
some places nearly twenty feet wide, that has been 
traced for several hundred yards. In this, sulphuret 
and carbonate of copper are very sparingly distributed 
through clay and rock. 

EXPERIMENT CIX. 

Piece of quartz from a gold mine in the Pike's Peak 
mining region, obtained of Mr. Henry, Peru, Illinois. 
Mrs. Denton did not see the specimen, and had not the 
most distant conception of the locality from which it 
was obtained. 

" This is unlike any place I ever saw before. I am 



250 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

between rocks that are high up; it is a magnificent 
place. I can see a long way down a deep valley to 
a turning. I see metal. The specimen takes me away | 
to some distant country. They have been excavating 
here for some purpose. I notice one place where the 
water has been made to run into an artificial channel. 

" I wonder if that can be gold I see. It certainly 
looks like it. There is a good deal of it at that turn- 
ing, farther in the rock however. There is a little 
where this was found, but not much ; there is more in 
several places around. The gold is contained in seams 
in the rdbk generally, but in some places I see it with- 
out. The rocks are damp and cold where I am now. 
There is a place in the distance where the gold shines 
in the rock like stars. It is well calculated to disap- 
point the miners, it lies so scattering. There is very 
little continuity about it." 

Those who are acquainted with the gold region of 
Pike's Peak will recognize the accuracy of some por- 
tions of this description at least. 

EXPERIMENT CX. 

When visiting McChesney's cabinet in Chicago, I 
obtained several pieces of silicified wood. Some time 
afterward I thought I should like to know the condi- 
tion of our planet during the time of its petrifaction, 
and gave one of the smaller pieces to Mrs. Denton for 
examination, not remembering at the time where it 
was obtained. She said, — 

"It affects my face and eyes. I am underground, 
in a place open here and there; it looks like a large 
open crevice. I sec metal and most beautiful rock. I 



ACTON COPPER MINE. 251 

stand with my face to the northwest. Forward of me 
is an open space with rock scattered here and there. 
The beautiful rock extends a good way to the left, 
with metal distributed among it. It seems to be a 
kind of vein, to the left, rich in metal and continuous 
for some distance. I see now and then a bright yel- 
low substance that seems like gold ; if gold, it is in 
great quantities. There are several metals here how- 
ever; there is lead in large masses by itself, and a 
good deal of sulphuret of iron. Off at my left, there 
is a massive piece of gold, and a good deal of gold 
dust distributed through the rock in the vein. Lead, 
however, would be a better name for it than vein, for 
it is wide and open almost like a cave." 

I thought this strange; for of gold or metals con- 
nected with the specimen I had never dreamed ; but 
on examining it I discovered a label marked, "near 
Gregory's Diggings, P. Peak." Here was the explana- 
tion then : gold, apparently possessing superior attrac- 
tive force psychometrically, as it does normally, had 
drawn the psychometer to its sphere ; and hence this 
description, probably, of some unexplored gold lead 
near Gregory's Diggings. 

EXPERIMENT CXI. 

Piece of ore from the copper mine at Acton, Canada 
East. 

Mrs. Denton. Specimen unseen, and nothing known 
by her respecting it. No ores had been examined for 
several months. 

" The first thing I see is a group of objects in water, 
not well defined. Shall I notice them ? " (No.) 



252 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

" I see something in spots that is very bright. Now 
I see a rock jutting out ; and under it I see the same 
bright appearance. I see something artificial; it is 
heavy at the bottom, and runs up high ; there seems 
to be a wheel there. I do not know but I am in a 
mine. I had a glimpse of a ladder. I am under- 
ground ; I think I am in a mine. There is an artificial 
light, I think a candle. I cannot yet tell what kind of 
a mine it is. The material has not the purity of gold 
about it. There seem to be two kinds of metal here. 
I do not see both, but I see one and feel the influence 
of the other, though it may be at some distance. 

"There is a bluish, purplish vapor that rises and pro- 
duces a feeling of suffocation. I think this must be 
copper; but there is something else. The vapor seems 
poisonous ; it is this which makes me think it is cop- 
per. This is a copper mine ; but it is not like the cop- 
per mines of Lake Superior; it is differently arranged. 
There is a great deal of copper here, I think, but I am 
only where they have disturbed it. I could not be 
induced to work in such a mine, it seems so poisonous. 
(There seems to be gas with that vapor.) This mine 
must have yielded well ; for, though the bodies of ore 
arc not as large as I have seen them, they are thickly 
distributed. There seems to be a pit dug at one 
place. They do not seem to have taken out all the 
ore, even where it is open. There are some large 
bodies, mixed with yellow sulphuret, that have not 
been touched yet. I sec a mass as long as this room 
is high. It is very jagged, and has an average thick- 
ness of five or six feet. It seems to lie to the north- 
east of the part that has been worked. Some of the 



ACTON COPPEK MINE. 253 

ore is blue, some purplish, and some has a green tinge. 
I do not seem to be far underground anywhere. The 
excavation here seems large. Ore is all scattered 
through the rock, and it seems much easier to obtain 
than in the Lake Superior region." 

I read this description to two mining engineers who 
were familiar with the Acton mines, and they both 
agreed that it was a very accurate description. One 
of them excepted the statement about the ladder that 
was seen, and the other, the rising vapors. Ladders 
have doubtless been used in the vicinity; and in refer- 
ence to the vapors, Mrs. D. did not mean to indicate 
that they were rising at the present time ; she merely 
received the impression of the long past, when from 
the interior came the dense vapors whose sublimation 
probably gave rise to these immense cupriferous de- 
posits. 

Since writing the above, I have visited the Acton 
mine ; and one of the first things I saw was a large 
ladder against the wall of rock, and a miner upon it 
drilling for a blast. I consider the description given 
a very correct one ; and when it is remembered that 
Mrs. D. did not know that the specimen she tried was 
an ore at all, much less a copper ore, it must be re- 
garded as truly wonderful. I present the facts as 
they occurred ; certainly none the less worthy of con- 
sideration because they are remarkable. 

How far psychometry can be practically employed 
in developing mines, remains yet to be tested. The 
greatest difficulty seems to be, in precisely determin- 
ing the depth at which deposits lie. A hundred feet 
more or less are but a trifle to the psychometer, 



254 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 






whereas to the miner, who has to drive through them, 
they involve considerable time and expense. In time 
all difficulty in this direction will be outgrown, I have 
no doubt, and the world be greatly advanced by the 
discovery of its rich mineral deposits. 



CHAPTER V. 

REMARKABLE PHENOMENA EXPLAINED. 

From a consideration of the statements made in this 
volume, it is bnt reasonable to suppose that phenom- 
ena springing from the accidental application of the 
psychometric faculty must have been frequently mani- 
fested in the history of the world. If, by placing 
specimens of various kinds in the hands or on the 
foreheads of sensitive individuals, they can behold 
pictures connected with the history of those speci- 
mens and perceive sensations that have been treas- 
ured up in them, we may naturally suppose, among the 
many sensitive persons in the world, that some must 
have had such pictures presented to them and such 
sensations produced, though they may Have been alto- 
gether unconscious of the source from which they 
emanated. This supposition is borne out by many 
facts that I have met with in reading, since we com- 
menced the investigation of this subject. 

Under the head of " Spectral Illusions," Dr. Aber- 
crombie gives the following : — " A gentleman of 
high mental endowments, now upwards of eighty 
years of age, of a spare habit, and enjoying uninter- 
rupted health, has been for eleven years liable to al- 
most daily visitations from spectral figures. They in 
general present human countenances ; the head and 



256 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

the body are distinctly defined ; the lower parts are, I 
for the most part, lost in a kind of cloud. The figures 
are various, but he recognizes the same countenances 
repeated from time to time, particularly of late years, 
that of an elderly woman, with a peculiarly arch and 
playful expression, and a dazzling brilliancy of eye, 
who seems just ready to speak to him. They appear i 
also in various dresses, such as that of the age of 
Louis XI Y. ; the costume of ancient Rome : that of the 
modern Turks and Greeks ; but more frequently, of I 
late, as in the case of this female now mentioned, in 
an old-fashioned Scottish plaid of Tartan, drawn up and \ 
brought forward over the head, and then crossed be- 1 
low the chin, as the plaid was worn by aged women in 
his younger days. He can seldom recognize among 
the spectres any figure or countenance which he re- 
members to have seen ; but his own face has been pre- 
sented to him, gradually undergoing the change from 
youth to manhood, and from manhood to old age." * 

I recognize this case at once as one in which psy- 
chometric influences, probably proceeding from arti- 
cles in the house in which the gentleman lived, opera- 
ting upon a sensitive organization, made sensitive by 
age, as others are by sickness, caused him to see the 
images of the persons from whom the influences origi- 
nally proceeded ; in the same manner as psychometers 
see the animals whose influence is contained in- the 
fossils with which they come in contact. -It is very 
common for psychometers to sec a portion of a body 
only, the rest being " lost in a kind of cloud," as in 
the case of fchis gentleman's apparitions. The individ- 

• A.bercrombie'8 Intellectual Powers, p. 256j 



REMARKABLE PHENOMENA EXPLAINED. 257 

uals appearing to him wore the dresses of the time 
when they existed ; the pictures of dresses being im- 
pressed on objects as readily as those of persons, and 
just as capable of psychometric vision. The elderly 
woman, so frequently seen, may have been a former oc- 
cupant of the house in which the gentleman resided, 
and its very walls may have been saturated with her 
influence. Dr. Abercrombie, practising in Edinburgh, 
his patient must have lived there ; and this former 
occupant, supposing this to be the true explanation, 
must have been a Scotch lady; and hence the proba- 
bility of her wearHig the " old-fashioned Scottish plaid 
of Tartan, drawn up and brought forward over the 
head, and then crossed below the chin, as the plaid 
was worn by aged women in his younger days." He 
did not recognize among the spectres the countenan- 
ces of those that he had seen, because these pictures 
did not proceed from his own brain originally, but 
from the objects surrounding him ; and hence those 
' objects having taken in his influence during his life- 
j time, he saw himself in the various appearances that 
,1 he presented " from youth to manhood, and from man- 
J hood to old age." 

o These anomalous facts, that seem to forbid all ex- 
| planation, and set at defiance all law, will be found, 
g j like the cometary wanderers in space, to have their 
g orbit, too ; and every waver in their track will be 
rj shown to be produced by the operation of some law, 
J though its discovery may remain to reward future ex- 
plorers in this great ocean, where the dim outline of 
,[ grand continents may be faintly seen on the distant 
horizon. 

22* 



258 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

"Monsieur Andral, in his youth, saw in La Pitie the 
putrid body of a child, covered with larvce, and during 
the next morning the spectre of this corpse, lying on 
his table, was as perfect as reality." * In a statement 
of this, that I have met with in some other work, it is 
said that this was visible to him for a quarter of an 
hour. He saw nothing of it until he came to the ta- 
ble on which the child had lain, and then its image was 
at once presented to him; its influence proceeding 
from that table bringing up the image before him ; 
for if it had been the image of the child impressed 
upon the retina of the eye or the brain, he would 
doubtless have seen it at a distance from the spot as 
readily as when there. 

Dr. Damon, of Coaticook, Canada East, informed me 
that when a young man, attending medical college, he 
had a fit of illness ; and, when confined in his cham- 
ber, he saw the lecture-room and all the students, and 
heard every word of lectures that he had previously 
heard, though an hour long. He also saw books that 
he had read, and was able to read page after page, the 
words on which were so plainly visible, that he noticed 
even the typographical errors. This condition contin- 
ued for about two weeks. 

Thousands of such experiences might have been re- 
corded, if a feeling of shame had not prevented par- 
ties to whom tlicy occurred from making them public. 
Many persons who have made public statements of 
what they have thus seen, have been rewarded for 
their candor by being charitably supposed insane, or 
uncharitably suspected of being drunk. 

* Philosophy of Mystery, )>y Dendy, p. 64. 



REMARKABLE PHENOMENA EXPLAINED. 259 

" The late Lieutenant-General Robertson, of Lawers, 
'/who served during the whole of the American war, 
brought home with him, at its termination, a negro 
who went by the name of Black Tom, and who contin- 
ued in his service. The room appropriated to the use 
of this man in the General's town- residence (I speak 
of Edinburgh) was on the ground floor ; and he was 
heard frequently to complain that he could not rest in 
; it, for that every night the figure of a headless lady, 
with a child in her arms, rose out of the hearth and 
'frightened him dreadfully. Of course nobody believed 
"this story, and it was supposed to be the dream of in- 
toxication, as Tom was not remarkable for sobriety ; 
but, strange to say, when the old mansion was pulled 
down to build Gillespie's hospital, which stands on its 
site, there was found under the hearthstone,, in that 
apartment, a box containing the body of a female, from 
Which the head had been severed ; and beneath her lay 
the remains of an infant, wrapped in a pillow-case 
trimmed with lace. She appeared, poor lady, to have 
been cut off in the c blossom of her sins,' for she was 
dressed, and her scissors were yet hanging by a rib- 
bon to her side, and her thimble was also in the box, 
having apparently fallen from her shrivelled finger." * 

Thorough the hearthstone came the influence of 
mother and baby, and their images appeared to the 
terrified Tom, who appears to have been the natural 
■possessor of considerable psychometric power. 
1 The case of Nicolai, the bookseller and author, of 
'Berlin, has excited more attention perhaps than any 
}th3r of this kind; and, though there are some difficul- 

*Mrs. Crowe's Night Side of Nature, p. 411. 



260 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 



ties in it, is I think explicable on the same principles: 
His narrative was read before the Academy of Sci 1 
ence, at Berlin, in 1799, and its substance is thu 
given by Mayo : — " Nicolai had met with some famil\ 
troubles that much disturbed him. Then, on the firs 
of January, 1791,«there stood before him, at the dis 
tance of ten paces, the ghost of his eldest son. Eh 
pointed at it, directing his wife to look. She saw 
not, and tried to convince Nicolai that it was an illu ci 
sion. In a quarter of an hour it vanished. In the al 
ternoon, at four o'clock, it came again. Nicolai warn 
alone. He went to his wife's room, the ghost followed li 
him. About six other apparitions joined the first, an 
they walked about among' each other. After som 
days, the apparition of his son stayed away ; but it 
place was filled with the figures of a number of per bj 
sons, some known, some unknown to Nicolai, — soimje 
of dead, others of living persons. The known one 
represented distant acquaintances only. The figure 
of none of Nicolai's habitual friends were there. Th 
appearances were almost always human ; occasionally 
a man on horseback, and birds and dogs would pre 
sent themselves. The apparitions came mostly afte: 
dinner, at the commencement of digestion ; they wen 
just like real persons, the coloring a thought fainter 
The apparitions were equally distinct whether Nicola 01 
was at home or in society, in the dark as by day; ii)f 
his own house, or those of others; but in the latij 
tor case they were less frequent, and they very so 
doin made their appearance in the streets. During 
the first eight days ihev Beemed to take very little no! lit 
{ice of one another, hut walked about like; people at i 



I 



REMARKABLE PHENOMENA EXPLAINED. 261 

stjpir, only here and there communing with each other. 
iiFhey took no notice of Nicolai, or of the remarks he ad- 
dressed regarding them to his wife and physician. No 
wort of his would dismiss them, or bring an absent 
one back. When he shut his eyes they sometimes dis- 
appeared, sometimes remained; when he opened his 
-byes they were there as before. After a week they 
iDecame more numerous, and began to converse. They 
conversed with one another first, and then addressed 
aim. Their remarks were short and unconnected, but 
{sensible and civil. His acquaintances inquired after 
)iis health, and expressed sympathy with him, and 
ispoke in terms comforting him. The apparitions were 
inmost conversible when he was alone ; nevertheless, 
j;hey mingled in the conversation when others were 
i 1 yv, and their voices had the same sound as those of 
real persons. The illusion went on thus from the 24th 
m February to the 20th of April; so that Nicolai, who 
was now in good bodily health, had time to become tran- 
quillized about the nature of his visitors, and observe 
!;hem at his ease." The doctors now prescribed leech- 
es ; and the figures became fainter and fainter, as he 
ost blood, until at length they became invisible, and 
Nicolai saw them no more.* 

I have no hesitation whatever in referring the vis- 
ons and sounds perceived by Nicolai to the operation 
)f the very same power by which, from archeological 
.pecimens and fossil remains, the psychometer sees the 
|! t/pparitions of beings, and hears sounds apparently 
aade by them. At first, the psychometric power in 
urn does not seem to have been so fully developed as 

*Mayo's Popular Superstitions, p. 55. 



262 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

it subsequently became, and he only sees the appear- 
ance of his deceased eldest son, toward whom hi 
thoughts during this period of trouble were doubtless 
frequently directed, and whose image was so vividly 
impressed upon his brain. As this power increases, 
his vision is no longer confined to objects previously 
impressed upon his brain, but the influences proceed 
ing from surrounding objects call up the images of per 
sons known and unknown, dead and alive, that fill the 
place. Nicolai was at this time sensitive enough to 
see the great picture gallery, or a portion of it at least 
where hangs the likeness of all that light ever beheld 
and he at length becomes sufficiently sensitive to hear 
issuing from the great store-house of sounds, the con 
doling words which his friends had uttered, as faith- 
fully registered and repeated to his interior ear. 

That this is the true explanation of this remarkable 
phenomena, is strengthened by the fact that, thirteer 
years previous to this, visions had presented themselves 
to his gaze such as psychometers are well conversanl 
with. Thus he writes: — "In the year 177S, I w& 
afflicted with a bilious fever, which at times, thougl 
.-'Mom. grew so high as to produce delirium. Even 
day, toward evening, the fever came on, and, if I hap 
pened to shut my eyes at that time, I could perceiv( 
the cold fit of the fever was beginning, even before 
sensation of cold was observable. This I knefi 
by the distinct appearance of colored pictures, of lesr 
than half their natural size, which looked as in framee 
They were a Bel of landscapes, composed of rocks 
trees, and other objects. II' I kept my eyes shut, ev 
erj minute produced some change in the representa 



HEM ARK ABLE PHENOMENA EXPLAINED. 263 

r : tion ; some figures vanished, and some appeared ; but 

if I opened my eyes all was gone ; if I shut them I 

had a different landscape. In the cold fit of the fever 

I I sometimes opened and shut my eyes every second, 

\ for the purpose of observation, and every time a clif- 

/ ferent picture appeared, replete with various objects, 

6 and which had not the slightest resemblance to those 

i that appeared before. These pictures presented them- 

)! selves, without interruption, as long as the cold fit of 

i the fever lasted. They became fainter as soon as I be- 

j gun to grow warm ; and when I was perfectly so, all were 

1 gone. When the cold fit of the fever was entirely 

i past, no more pictures appeared ; but if, on the next 

■a day, I could again see pictures when my eyes were 

shut, it was a certain sign that the cold fit was coming 

on.' 7 * 

Nicolai's clothing, or articles contained in his pock- 
ets, or objects in his room, may have furnished the pic- 
tures ; the fever producing the condition in him neces- 
sary to the observance of them. 

" Then we have the case of Professor Hitchcock, 
detailed by himself in the ' New Englander/ and 
which is one of the most striking on record. He 
had/ 7 during a fit of sickness, " day after day, visions 
of strange landscapes spread out before him, — moun- 
tain and lake and forest, — vast rocks, strata upon 
m strata, piled to the clouds, — the panorama of a world 
shattered and upheaved, disclosing the grim secrets 
of creation, the unshapely and monstrous rudiments of 
organic being." f 

* Natural History of Creation, T. Lindlcy Kemp, M. D., p. 43. 
t Dream Land and Ghost Land, by E. P. Hood. 



2 6 ± THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

If sufficiently sensitive, this was no wonder, when 
he was handling from day to day the rocks that con- 
tained these landscapes, and was constantly surrounded 
by them. In his u Religion of Geology," speaking of 
the influence of light upon bodies, and the formation 
of pictures upon them by means of it, he says : — 

" It seems then that this photographic influence per- 
vades all nature ; nor can we say where it stops. We 
do not know but it may imprint upon the world around 
us our features, as they are modified by various pas- 
sions, and thus fill nature with daguerreotype impres- 
sions of all our actions that are performed in daylight. 
It may be, too, that there are tests by which nature 
more skilfully than any human photographist can bring 
out and fix these portraits, so that acuter senses than 
ours shall see them as on a great canvas, spread over 
the material universe. Perhaps, too, they may never 
fade from that canvas, but become specimens in the 
great picture gallery of eternity." 

Beautiful and true! This conjecture, which was 
probably suggested by his own experience, accords 
with many of the facts presented in this volume ; some 
of which go farther, however, than the professor's 
imagination dared to go, vigorous as was its flight. 
Thus do the realities of nature constantly outstrip the 
halting imagination of man. 

A son of Professor Hitchcock, Professor Charles H. 
Bitchcock, State Geologist of Maine, informed me that, 
during a recent fit of sickness, his father saw spread 
before him Large beds of sandstone, covered with 
tracks, such as are found in the Connecticut Valley ; 
and that these tracks enabled him to clear up some 



REMARKABLE PHENOMENA EXPLAINED. 265 

doubtful poiuts in reference to them, which he had 
been unable to do by any other means. 

As I write this, I am reminded of a vision that Mrs. 
Denton had while examining a specimen of sandstone 
from the Connecticut Valley, she knowing its nature : 

" I see the whole surface of the rock exposed for 
acres. There are many footprints, of different sizes, 
some larger than any that I have seen. In two places 
I see large jaws and teeth in the rock ; they are semi- 
circular, and the teeth flattish and broad. In one place 
I see a track go round, then it comes to the edge, and 
I see no farther. 

"I do not believe they have opened the richest place 
yet. There seems a large collection of fossils in one 
place ; I am sure there are bones. 

" Now I see a great many feet and ancles. The feet 
are divided, and the leg is roundish ; it has a chubby 
look, quite unlike that of a fowl." 

It is to be hoped that some of these fossils will he 
found, and the nature of the animals that made the 
tracks be determined to the satisfaction of all. 

Where there is one who possesses the power of see- 
ing psychometrically, there are probably three who 
possess the power of feeling. For years I have sought 
to develop in myself the power to see the pictures 
that all objects contain, but in vain ; yet, I am able to 
feel influences proceeding from substances that had 
once belonged to organic bodies, and can at times, by 
this means, from a portion of bone describe the kind 
of animal to»which it originally belonged. In ^the fol- 
lowing case we have, I think, the result of the uncon- 
scious exercise of this power : 



266 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

"In the town of North Walshara, Norfolk, 1788, the 
Fair Penitent was performed. In the last act, where 
Caliste lays her hand on the skull, a Mrs. Berry, who 
played the part, was seized with an involuntary shud- ! 
dering and fell on the stage. During the night her 
illness continued ; but the following day, when suffi- 
ciently recovered to converse, she sent for the si age- 
keeper and anxiously inquired where he procured the 
skull. He replied, from the sexton, who informed him 
it was the skull of one Norris, a player, who, twelve 
years before, was baried in the graveyard. That 
same Norris was her first husband. She died in six 
weeks." 

Possessed of considerable psychometric power, she 
recognized the influence proceeding from the skull, 
and the recognition produced such a terrible shock 
that her death was the consequence. 

Were I disposed to increase the size of this book, I 
might give many other instances illustrating the unin- 
tentional use of the psychometric faculty. All persons 
doubtless possess and exercise it more or less, and, by 
proper cultivation, many might make it of the great- 
est benefit to themselves and others. 



CHAPTER VI. 



UTILITY OF PSYCHOMETRY. 



To the geologist psychometry will be of incalculable 
benefit. There are wide realms of the past that he 
has never trod ; others, that he has visited, are so en- 
shrouded in gloom that his acquaintance with them is 
extremely limited. How little we know of the land 
fauna and flora during the Cretaceous period. Trees 
must have flourished, reptiles must have crawled, and 
beasts roamed over the surface of the dry land, when 
the chalk beds of Europe were being deposited in the 
depths of the ocean, the cream-colored limestones of 
Texas, and the marls and greensands of the Atlantic 
States. Yet of these we know hardly anything ; the 
river deltas of that period are yet to be found, and 
their fossil contents exhumed ; and even when that is 
done, the record will be very incomplete. The ad- 
vanced psychometer can take a Cretaceous fossil, and, 
by means of it, not only obtain the forms of marine 
animals and plants that lived during this period, but, 
without much difficulty, those also of the land; and 
thus fill up the great hiatus that at present exists. 

What do we know of the commencement of life? 
True, the Oldliamia has been found by the government 
surveyors in Ireland, below all other fossil remains, 
and corals in the Taconic formation of the United 

2G7 



268 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

States have been discovered below all other organic 
forms; but it is probable that the traces of life's begin- 
ning lie far below these ; not in fossils to be seen, but 
in influences that the psychometer alone can detect. 
Forms too small, too soft, or too fragile to leave visible 
impress upon the rocks, shall be distinguished and 
described, and vast ages of apparent barrenness be 
peopled with busy life. 

The imperfection of the geological record, especially 
as a record of organized existences, must be evident 
from an examination of those parts of the earth where 
formations are now being deposited and organic re- 
mains buried. This age will be geologically represented 
in the future by those beds that are now forming at the 
mouths of rivers, such as the Mississippi, the Ganges, 
and the Nile ; by beds of tufa, in the neighborhood of 
calcareous springs ; by beds of peat, as in some parts 
of Ireland, New York, and Massachusetts ; by accumu- 
lations of vegetable remains, as in the Dismal Swamp ; 
by coral reefs, such as are now forming in the Pacific 
Ocean; and by volcanic products similar to the beds 
near Vesuvius, which contain the works and remains 
of man. A million years from this, how largo a por- 
tion of those formations will be dry land trod b}^ human 
beings? How much of the land thus above the water 
will be exposed, so that the beds composing it may be 
examined by Ehe geologist? Among the bones cx- 
! in (hose bods and examined by geologists, what 
chance would there bo of finding a fossil gorilla? It 
would n<>t ho buried in peat bods, for peat is not 
formed in countries hoi enough for it to exist in. It 
would not be (bund in a coral roof, for it is altogether 



UTILITY OF PSYCHOMETRY. 269 

confined to the knd. Almost the only chance of dis- 
covering the bones of this animal would be in tufaceous 
deposits, or in beds formed at the months of some of 
the rivers of Western Africa. But how extremely un- 
likely it would be for any future geologist to exhume 
the bones of an animal that while living eluded the 
gaze of naturalists for centuries. So, of course, it 
must be with many animals that lived millions of years 
ago. What fishes must have existed of which we 
have no scale ! What reptiles have crawled that have 
left no track ! Had it not been for the enduring char- 
acter of the dermal skeleton of the ganoids, what should 
we have known of the strange fishes of the Devonian 
period ? And how many fishes have existed with car- 
tilaginous bodies, of which we have no vestige and are 
not likely to obtain any ! What myriads of beings 
must have lived and died whose memorial has per- 
ished ! Of the more than a hundred reptiles, and 
other animals, whose tracks have been found in the 
sandstones of the Connecticut Valley, what should we 
have known if the shore of the estuary on which they 
wandered had not been composed of material fine 
enough to retain the impressions made upon it, and 
conditions had not been exceedingly favorable for 
their preservation ? 

The ornithological page of geology is most sadly 
deficient. A few suspected fragments from the chalk, 
a few fossils from the London clay and other Tertiary 
deposits, are the sum total of our acquisitions. Owing 
to their habits, the lightness of their bones, and the 
tendency of their dead bodies to float on the water, 
but few have become fossil, and hence our knowledge 



270 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

of them is extremely limited. Where are the birds 
that were doubtless the companions of the marsupial 
quadrupeds of the Oolite, and probably long preceded 
them? Where the water-fowl that skimmed the Cre- 
taceous seas and fished in their calcareous waters? 
The number of species of birds at the present time is 
about five times as great as that of beasts, and their 
numerical superiority was probably quite as great dur- 
ing the whole of the Tertiary and Secondary periods j 
and, if so, what revelations are yet to be made in refer- 
ence to extinct birds ! — revelations that, apparently, 
psychometry alone can make. For, imperfect as the 
rocks may be in fossils, they are, in my opinion, abso- 
lutely perfect in pictorial representations and organic 
influences ; and hence every feather of every wing of 
every wandering bird has been delineated and may 
yet be found. Models of these and of all other ani- 
mals will be made, and we shall eventually be able to 
view the great organic procession from the monad to 
the man. How extravagant ! you exclaim. Granted ; 
but the extravagance of one generation becomes the 
sober reality of the next. 

These fossiliferous rocks are a great volume of natu- 
ral history, illustrated by plates, — how marvellously 
executed! — of all that has issued from the fertile womb 
of life. What translators will be needed for centuries 
to render this volume into our ordinary language, and 
make its pictures visible to ordinary observers ! Over 
continents, for ages buried in the depths of the ocean, 
the psychomotor shall wander and view mighty Ama- 
zons and Mississippi*, on which boat never sailed, flow- 
ing from mountains (hat have long been worn down 



UTILITY OF PSYCHOMETRY. 271 

to fertile plains, and sweeping over wide regions, ten- 
anted by stranger monsters than imagination ever con- 
ceived. 

The geological history of every continent and island 
may be obtained, and the minutest detail furnished of 
all the changes to which it has been subjected. Cor- 
rect maps of the earth will yet be constructed, show- 
ing its land and water surface at all periods of its his- 
tory. Nay, I do not think we need despair of obtain- 
ing eventually the absolute date of the formation of all 
the rocks, and the actual period when the various ani- 
mals flourished whose fossil remains are found in them. 
The heavens are a grand chronometer, over whose 
dial the stars slowly move, and cycles are marked as 
our clocks mark the hours ; and by the position of the 
stars, as seen by psychometers, the periods of all the 
great formations may yet be determined, and, in time, 
the groups in these formations be gradually worked 
out. Rocks that are now regarded as contemporane- 
ous, because they contain fossil forms that are identi- 
cal, may be found separated by ages ; life having been 
retarded on some portions of the globe by unfavorable 
conditions, as it has been advanced on other portions 
by favorable ones. 

Geology is the history of many worlds ; the face of 
the earth having been renewed many times. Mountains 
have been elevated and degraded, lakes formed and 
drained, and life in many forms, on land and in water, 
has spread over wide areas, flourished for countless 
generations, and then passed away, to give place to 
others, in their turn to flourish and decay. A preci- 
pice a hundred feet high may contain the tablets on 



2rJ THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

which are recorded the events that transpired on the 
surface of many of these successive worlds ; and the 
future psychometers alone can fully understand and 
correctly translate these for the benefit of those com- 
ing after us ; who shall read more correctly than we 
these instructive volumes containing the history of the 
past. 

To the miner, psychometry gives eyes that see 
through granite almost as readily as through glass ; 
and he shall trace the courses of veins deeply buried 
under drift accumulations as readily as he does the 
windings of rivers on the surface. 

Frequently, in travelling over the country in the 
cars, Mrs. Denton will say to me, there is oil under 
here, or there is lead or copper in this neighborhood ; 
and, in many cases, I have afterward verified the state- 
ments, though neither of us, apart from psychometry, 
knew anything respecting these deposits. 

For instance : in passing from Richmond to Que- 
bec, in January last, as we approached Black River 
Station, Mrs. Denton remarked, "There is considerable 
copper in this neighborhood." " In what form does it 
exist?" I inquired. "Some of it appears to be the 
sulphuret ; but there is a good deal of native copper, 
resembling that which I have seen in the Lake Supe- 
rior region ; it is the first of that kind that I have seen 
in Canada. I see it distributed in detached, irregular 
masse ." 

This surprised me very much, for i had, previous 
1«) this, no idea that copper existed in its native form 
in the eastern townships, unless in very fine grains, 
one specimen of which J had seen, but from a different 



UTILITY OF PSYCHOMETRY. 273 

locality. But what was my surprise, a few days after- 
ward, at the dinner-table, to hear one gentleman in- 
form another that a piece of native copper had been 
found in a gravel bank near Black River. .A few days 
afterward, Rev. W. L. Thompson, of Stanstead, showed 
me a specimen from the same locality. 

When properly cultivated, what an advantage psy- 
chometry will be to the miner and to the world. Dig- 
ging for metals will be as certain as the reaping of the 
ripened grain. Mining, at the present time, is a most 
hazardous business, more than half the mines worked 
never paying expenses ; but it shall not always be. 
The vast stores of lead, copper, silver, gold, and pre- 
cious stones, that are lying concealed in the dark re- 
cesses of the earth, shall be exposed and obtained. 
Deep pits need no longer be made to bury the hopes 
and the money of the men that dig them ; nor tunnels 
made by incredible labor be abandoned when success is 
nearly certain, by men whose future lives are embit- 
tered with poverty and disappointment. These things 
will become stories of the past, to be repeated no 
more in the future. Of the wealth of the earth's inte- 
rior, few beyond psychometers who may have exam- 
ined it have any idea. 

Astronomy will not disdain the assistance of this 
power. As new forms of organic being are revealed, 
when we go back to the earlier geologic periods, so 
new groupings of the stars, new constellations will be 
displayed, when the heavens of those early periods 
are examined by the piercing gaze of future psychom- 
eters. An accurate map of the starry heavens during 
the Silurian period may reveal to us many secrets that 



274 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

we have been unable to discover, from the shortness of 
time that has been devoted to intelligent astronomical 
observations, and make clearly apparent what is at 
present but dimly seen. Why may we not indeed be 
able to read the history of the various heavenly bod- 
ies, especially those belonging, to the solar system with 
which we are so intimately related, — their geological, 
their natural, and, perchance, their human history? For 
ages their influences have been rayed upon the earth, 
for ages they have been relating their stories to their 
sister worlds, patiently waiting till the intelligent soul 
should come that could understand their revelations. 
What books are' yet to be written, what histories re- 
corded, and what light to be shed on great problems 
that have agitated the minds of thinkers for thousands 
of years ! I have good reason to believe that trained 
psychometers will be able to travel from planet to 
planet, and read their present condition minutely, and 
their past history. It may be asked, How shall we be 
able to know whether the statements that are made 
are correct or not ? The revelations of one may be 
compared with the revelations of another ; and we 
shall thus be able to judge of their correctness, as we 
do the statements of astronomers, who see with their 
sky-piercing tubes what is invisible to the ordinary 
spectator. 

To the physiologist and anatomist it presents a mi- 
croscope, by which the organs of living animals can be 
seen as they perform their varied functions ; the tis- 
sues examined, fresh ami beautiful, as they are perva- 
ded by the vital currents; 'lipase traced to its lurk- 
ing place, and the operation of the appropriate remedy 



UTILITY OF PSYCHOMETRY. 275 

be watched as the system returns to its equilibrium. 
The secret history of every animal may be ob- 
tained, from its birth to its death, and life be made to 
reveal its most cherished secrets. The great chain 
of organic existence may be traced, link by link, and 
the nature of the connection between them be fully 
understood. 

Psychometry has already been employed in the cure 
of diseases ; its principal value having been, hitherto, 
in giving a correct diagnosis ; which can readily be 
done, in consequence of the sympathy that can be 
established between psychometers and the diseased; 
and also by means of that clear vision which has been 
illustrated in several of our experiments. 

I have known persons from letters to give accurate 
descriptions of the diseases of the persons who wrote 
them, though having no previous knowledge of the 
writer. The good that may be accomplished in this 
way is incalculable. 

The artist will find his field almost infinitely ex- 
tended, as the panoramas of the earlier worlds pass 
before his eyes. What mountains he shall see in sul-- 
len grandeur, as just upheaved they stand, unworn by 
frosts and rains ! What cataracts pouring over im- 
mense precipices, long since worn down and swept 
away! The historical past can be represented by him 
with all accuracy of surroundings, feature, and cos- 
tume, and we shall no longer be troubled with the lies 
on canvas that pass for historical paintings. 

Who can estimate the value of psychometry to the 
historian ? " History," said Yoltaire, " is a grand lie ; " 
it will be the work of the psychometer to make it a 



276 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

grand truth. The biography of all nations is faithfully 
recorded somewhere, and all that is needed, I doubt 
not, can be obtained. What the soul asks for, Nature, 
in her superabundant fulness, is able and willing to 
grant. We ask to be delivered from the fables in 
which the early history of all nations is shrouded, for 
light to arise upon the darkness of the past ; and it 
shall be clone. The history of the early dwellers in 
Britain, France, G-ermany, Denmark, and Switzerland 
shall be read in the light of this power, and the still 
older histories of the early dwellers in Greece, Asia 
Minor, Egypt, and India. Man's history on this globe 
may possibly extend over millions, instead of merely 
over thousands of years, and we may watch every step 
of the process by which the brutal savage was eventu- 
ally transformed into the man. We shall wander 
along the shore of time, and watch the empires as 
they rise and fall before us, as rise and fall the waves 
of a swelling tide. By the aid of psychometry wo 
can tread the sands of Egypt, and see the united mul- 
titudes as they drag the ponderous stones and heave 
the enduring pyramids ; walk the streets of Athens in 
the artistic days of Pericles, and behold it in its won- 
drous beauty, as adorned by those ancient lovers of 
ail ; or when Socrates drops his thoughts in the mar- 
ket-place, like pearls ; or when in academic bowers we 
listen to (lie- voice of his aoble disciple, Plato; through 
the si rods of Jerusalem when Solomon sits on the 
throne of his glory, and the new temple shines in its 
splendor, "the joy of all the earth;" stand on the Gal- 
ilean mountain and hear the peaceful lessons that are 
spoken by the Man of Nazareth, and mark the rapt 



UTILITY OF PSYCHOMETRY. 277 

attention of the multitude as they hear the gracious 
words that fall from his lips. 

The sword that Cromwell used is imbued with his 
stern spirit, and is prepared to reveal the secrets of 
its master when a worthy listener shall appear. It 
is not surprising that relics of Napoleon bring large 
gums ; they are the recipients of the actions and even 
thoughts of this mighty master of war, and will yet 
make known what no biographer has written. What a 
tale a chip of the pyramids might tell, or of the stony- 
faced Sphinx, that has stared upon a hundred genera- 
tions as they marched to their destiny over the sands 
before it ! Could the tomb of Mahomet be rifled, what 
revelations of the private life of the camel-driver it 
could give us ! The history of the world has yet to be 
written ;. these accurate, uncorruptible witnesses of the 
past shall be heard, and their testimony taken. 

The history of the people, so sadly neglected by his- 
torians, shall be sought for and found ; for the life of 
the meanest plebeian is detailed as accurately as the 
deeds of the proud patrician. The gradual advance 
of all peoples in language, from the first monosyllabic 
grunts, to the polished tongues of Europe ; in art, 
from the chipped stone and the rude cave, to the 
sculptured marble and the stately palace ; in religion, 
from the worship of crawling beetles to the recogni- 
tion of the Divine Spirit of the universe, — these, and 
more, will all be traced ; and the clouds that now rest 
over the histories of all nations shall melt away in the 
beams of the rising sun. 

There is a practical, every-day side to psychometry 
well worthy of consideration. It must be evident to 



278 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

those who place any faith in the examinations recorded 
in this volume, that all bodies, organic bodies more es- 
pecially, are transmitting influences continually to sur- 
rounding objects, the tendency of which is to bring 
these objects into a similar condition to their own. 
We may readily see how valuable this knowledge is, 
and how it explains many facts that are constantly pre- 
senting themselves, and are dismissed as mysteries. 
Radiant forces pass from us continually, as truly as 
light proceeds from the stars ; and though they may 
be unseen, they are by no means unfelt. "Talk of 
the devil, and he will appear/' is an old adage, and 
made probably in consequence of the vicinity of an 
individual directing our attention to him ; his atmos- 
phere causing us to think of him, though we perceive 
not the reason. Sensitive persons can be influenced 
in this way, I am persuaded, at great distances. Hus- 
band and wife mutually influence each other, and the 
tendency is, though it may fail to secure the object 
from the operation of counteracting causes, to bring 
both parties to a closer resemblance to each other in 
every respect. This has long been noticed, even phys- 
ically ; long-married and lovingly-united couples in- 
crease in outward resemblance as year after year pass- 
es away. Mentally, this is notorious, and morally not 
less bo. Whore one is on a decidedly inferior plane 
to the other, the degrading tendency felt by the higher 
and superior may produce great unhappiness and con- 
sequent inharmony; hence, the necessity of attending 
to the intuitive suggestions which may rise in the soul 
previous to an alliance on which so much depends, and 
in which fche interests of so many may be involved. 



UTILITY OF PSYCHOMETRY. 270 

To the maiden, who shrinks at the presence of the 
man who wishes to be her life-companion, I say, let no 
persuasion of friends, no prospect of wealth, no fear 
of want, no urgent entreaties or prayers of a lover, in- 
duce you to neglect that small voice, which proceeds 
from woman's wisest instructor and best adviser. 

When persons are long and very intimately asso- 
ciated, the life-power of the one seems to become 
linked with that of the other. Persons have been 
known to feel a shock caused by the death of a twin 
brother, though separated at the time by hundreds of 
miles. Some cases of this kind have occurred during 
the present war. Long-married people frequently die 
within a short time of each other ; their condition re- 
minding one of the expression of Judah, in reference to 
Jacob and Benjamin, " His life is bound up in the lad's 
life." 

As the stove parts with its heat to bring all surround- 
ing objects into its own heated condition, so we affect 
those surrounding us. / Not more certainly does a rose 
diffuse its fragrance than human beings dispense their 
influence wherever they go. We are each surrounded 
by an atmosphere, which can convey to sensitives the 
impression of our character and condition. Wherever 
the foot touches the ground, the impression of the 
man is left upon it, so that even the dog, by means of 
it, can track his master hours after he has passed over 
the ground; and persons have been known to trace 
murderers in this way over a large extent of country 
several days after they had passed. 

Not only does a speaker reach his audience by the 
sounds that strike the ear, and rays of light that pass 



280 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

from hini to the eye, but by invisible rays that reach 
the interior sense ; and enable hiin, more than by all 
else, to charm and captivate them. When a speaker 
uses a manuscript, that receives it to a great extent 
instead of the audience ; and hence, such lectures are 
pronounced cold and insipid ; though the language 
may be perfect, the ideas ^all that could be wished, and 
the elocution faultless. Something is wanting; we 
cannot tell what ; but all feel it. Until a speaker has 
established a sympathy between himself and his audi- 
ence, his position is far from being agreeable to him- 
self, or pleasant to them. Hence, everything that 
tends- to place a barrier between a speaker and his 
audience should be avoided. All boxes, called pulpits, 
all desks and tables, are a hindrance to the free com- 
munication that ought to take place between them. 
It has long been noticed that preachers give much 
better sermons in little country schoolhouses than in 
fine churches in the city. They are nearer the people ; 
there is less obstruction between them, and a true 
sympathy is more readily established. 

By the connection existing between speaker and 
hearer, he can call up in their minds the feelings exist- 
ing in his own. Love, hate, revenge, and even frenzy; 
all these are thus communicated, and each one thus 
influenced becomes in turn a centre to radiate these 
influences to those around. When the number affected 
is large, and the, feeling intense, it consumes like a 
furnace, and transforms into its own nature whatever 
ii comes in contact with. The most indifferent specta- 
tor sometimes becomes as rabid as any actor, without 
1) >mg able to assign a reason. 



UTILITY OP PSYCHOMETHY. 281 

Where an audience is antagonistic to a speaker, if 
sensitive, he perceives it ; and unless remarkably posi- 
tive, and his positiveness arouses him to unusual ac- 
tion, he will be so affected by it as to lower the tone 
of his discourse, or even, as in cases that I have heard 
of, be compelled abruptly to close it. Where, on the 
contrary, the audience sympathizes with him, he re- 
ceives from them as truly as he imparts, and, upborne 
by their sympathy, he mounts to regions of philosophy 
that unassisted he could never gain, and pours out his 
soul in burning eloquence that startles and thrills him- 
not less than his hearers. 

Is a man religious ? not more truly does the sun 
shine, imparting its glory to surrounding objects, than 
that man's religious influence passes from him to all 
persons and things within its sphere. The house in 
which he lives, as well as the house in which he wor- 
ships, becomes a religious house ; and the word, thus 
applied, is by no means as inappropriate as some 
would have us believe", who see the surface, but not 
the interior of things. Brutality and lust go forth in 
like manner, impressing and influencing all within their 
range. Houses become so imbued with the influence 
of the people that live in them that sensitive persons 
can feel that influence as soon as they enter ; and if it 
is unpleasant, they have a feeling of uneasiness, or 
positive unhappiness, as long as they are subject to it. 
Many persons feeling this, are entirely unaware of its 
origin, and suffer the consequences of their ignorance. 

It has long been known that the young and healthy 
impart their health and vigor to the sickly and infirm. 
Of this, David's advisers seem to have been aware, 



282 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

when, in his old age, they brought the fair Shunaruite 
damsel to " cherish the king." 

For this reason, old and young should not unite in 
matrimony, neither should young children sleep with 
their grandparents, who by this means prolong their 
own existence at the expense of the children's health. 

" Dr. Copeland relates the following case : — 

"'Iwas a few years since consulted about a pale, 
sickly, and thin boy of about five or six years of age. 
He appeared to have no specific ailment, but there was 
a slow and remarkable decline of flesh and strength, 
and of the energy of all the functions, — what his 
mother very aptly termed " a gradual blight." After 
inquiring into the history of the case, it came out that 
he had been a very robust and plethoric child up to 
his third year, when his grandmother, a very aged 
person, took him to sleep with her ; that he soon after- 
ward lost his good looks, and that he had continued to 
decline progressively ever since, notwithstanding med- 
ical treatment. I directed him to sleep apart from his 
aged grandparent, and prescribed gentle tonics, change 
of air, etc., and the recovery was very rapid.' " * 

Sickly persons should refrain from kissing and fond- 
ling children, and healthy persons alone should be 
nurses. It is important to know who makes our bread; 
for the dough necessarily receives the influence of 
those through whose hands it passes. The baker puts 
his life in his Loaf, and influences persons for good or 
evil, who eat his bread. 

The domestication of animals may have been to a 
great extent produced by man's influence imparted to 

* milingen'fl Curiosities of Medical Experience, p. 326. 



UTILITY OF PSYCHOMETRY. £83 

them; which animals acquainted with man aie all glad 
to receive. This influence was, of course, more read- 
ily imparted to them when man was a savage, and 
there exisited a greater familiarity between the beast 
and man. 

Animals, in their turn, affect human beings. The 
influence of healthy horses, cows, dogs, and other ani- 
mals is beneficial to the sick and the infirm ; and much 
of the robust health enjoyed by those surrounded by 
their influence, in spite of wide departures from cor- 
rect living, may be attributed to this. Puny children 
might play with dogs and cats, and ride on horseback, 
to advantage, as far as their health is concerned. 

But as animals below man have but little that is 
intellectual or spiritual to radiate, and they are con- 
santly receiving these from us while we are in contact 
with them, we are robbed on these sides of our being 
by the association, and receive the brutal in return. 
Men who are constantly with hogs, cattle, and horses, 
seem to partake of their nature, manifesting the ani- 
mality they are constantly receiving. 

There is no doubt that the geologic formations of a 
country produce some effect on the people who dwell 
above them, and who drink the water which has soaked 
through them, and is charged with their peculiar influ- 
ence. I have found the calcareous deposit of a steam 
boiler, so charged with the organic influence of the 
rocks through which the water had passed, that it could 
be instantly perceived on trying it psychometrically. 
Certain countries produce certain men. Much is due 
to the original stock from which they were derived ; 
much to the climate to which they are subjected ; 



284 TEE SOUL OF THINGS. 

much to their habits ; but, after all these and other 
causes are eliminated, there is quite a remainder 
which may be attributed to the influence that the 
rocks of a country and their contents have upon its 
inhabitants. It may be long before we can tell how 
much effect, and what kind of an effect, the Lower Silu- 
rian limestones, so completely filled with fossil forms, 
may have upon the people of Nashville, Cincinnati, 
Ottawa, and Montreal, who live above them ; but that 
they do affect them considerably, I have not the slight- 
est doubt. 

There is more received by the earth and its inhab- 
itants from the sun than the natural philosopher or the 
chemist can detect, and the astrologer himself may 
have had some reason in the nature of things for his 
belief in the influence of the stars. 

As houses receive and retain the influence of the 
dwellers in them, so cities, aggregates of houses, re- 
ceive and retain the influence of the people living and 
walking in them, and then radiate this influence which 
they have received, so that a stranger, taking up his 
residence in a city, has this influence brought to bear 
upon him, the tendenc} 7 of which is to mould him ac- 
( ording to the general character of the place. Who 
that has travelled does not know that towns have char- 
acters just as truly as Individuals? and these characters 
continue, though generation after generation passes 
away. Louis Napoleon wisely caused the sentry-box 

to be destroyed, in which three successive Bentries 
had hung themselves. Nb1 more surely did the in- 
fluence in thai sentry-box permeate these men, than 
influences proceeding from cities permeate the people 



UTILITY OF PSYCHOMETBY. 285 

living in them, and give them a general character. In 
a feebler degree this is trne of a country ; the very 
rocks drink in the character of the people of the coun- 
try in which they exist, and give this out again, so as 
to be perceptible to the sensitive psychorneter. 

Evil associates not only influence by their practices 
and language, then, but unseen and unheard baleful in- 
fluences pass from them, as from the fabled stars- dark- 
ness was rayed forth. The good man, the intelligent 
man, is a blessing, everywhere and at all times; the man 
who walks past his house receives his silent benedic- 
tion, and even when he is dead, the very stones of his 
hearth spread benign influences around' them, and 
the world is better and more intelligent for his having 
lived in it. The virtues of mankind outnumber their 
vices. Their crimes, about which so much is written 
and said, are but dust in the balance, compared with 
their good deeds, constantly poured out, and as little 
regarded as the -oft-repeated showers; and in conse- 
quence of this, every generation born into the world 
has a more glorious heritage than the preceding,- not 
only are they the richer and better for the mechanical 
inventions, the architectural improvements, the scien- 
tific advancements, but the world is every year becom- 
ing more imbued with intelligence, refinement and vir- 
tue, which are silently moulding the masses into more 
lordly beings, in turn to leave the world better than 
they found it. Could we psychometrize the planets of 
our solar system and more distant worlds, as we may 
do at some time, it is probable that we should find all 
those that are inhabited having a distinct character 
impressed upon them by the influences proceeding 



286 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

from their inhabitants, and thus, with their light, these 
influences may proceed, and they be mutually tele- 
graphing to each other their mental and moral condi- 
tion, as age after age passes away. 

The doctor's presence, if he is healthy and genial, 
may be of more benefit to the patient than his pills ; 
and mothers, by their soothing manipulations, fre- 
quently cure unconsciously their sick children, by im- 
parting to them the health and vigor of their own 
constitutions. By a knowledge of such facts, much 
suffering may be removed, and the sum of human en- 
joyment be greatly increased. 

Women are much more susceptible of psychometric 
impressions than men, probably in the proportion of 
five to one. And this may be the reason why they 
are quicker witted, arrive at correct conclusions easier 
and sooner, and are unable so frequently to give the 
reason for those conclusions. Ask a woman why she 
thinks a thing is so, " Because it is/ 7 is the answer ; and 
this has been styled " woman's reason." There is a 
good reason why women employ it. They have such 
an assurance of the truth of what they say that no 
doubt exists in their minds; but as they arrived at this 
assurance intuitively, and by no process of reasoning, 
they are of course unable to give any other than " wo- 
man's reason." While man is toiling up the steep by 
painful steps, with laboring breath and sweating brow, 
woman flies to the summit in an instant, and wonders 
that man should be such a laggard. 

When woman shall employ her psychometric power 
in a scientific direction, as she will ere long, some of 
our si vans may tremble for their laurels. I affirm that 



UTILITY OF PSYCHOMETRY. 287 

by psychometry a woman may have in one year a more 
correct idea of the condition of the earth and its occu- 
pants during the geologic periods than any man with- 
out it could in a lifetime. I speak with confidence in 
reference to geology, for I speak what I know ; and I 
have no doubt that a similar statement in reference to 
other sciences could be truthfully made. 

Woman's superior sensitiveness is frequently mani- 
fested, and laughed at by- man ; and more frequently 
hidden on account of his ridicule. A lady sees her 
husband in close conversation with a smooth-spoken 
gentleman, and, as soon as he is gone, she exclaims, 
" Oh, John, don't have anything to do with that man ! " 
"What do you know about him?" is the half-angry 
exclamation of her husband. " Nothing," she replies ; 
" but you will be sorry if you have any dealings with 
him." The strong-minded man, despising what he 
calls the " whim " of his wife, only remembers her 
warning when he finds himself victimized by this art- 
ful gentleman. But, of course, it only happened so ; 
and he is no more inclined to heed his wife's " whims " 
than before. 

Psychometry will yet be employed for the discovery 
and prevention of crime. In its presence, and it is 
omnipresent, the faintest whisper is loud as the rolling 
thunder ; and there is no cunning that can conceal an 
evil deed from its eye ; its very commission is its pub- 
lication. It is a mistake, in more senses than one, to 
suppose that " dead men tell no tales." Their very 
bone-cells contain the record of every deed commit- 
ted and every outrage suffered. The dungeon hears 
and treasures every sigh of tyranny's victim, and the 



288 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

ashes of the martyrs contain the story of their 
wrongs. 

It has been said that the face of the murderer has 
been found daguerreotyped on the pupil of the eye of 
his victim. Whether this is true or not, in the sense 
of ordinary vision, it is certainly so as far as psycho- 
metric vision is concerned. When these facts are uni- 
versally recognized, and the faculty for reading Na- 
ture's all-containing book is developed, its influence 
will certainly be a restraint on the commission of 
crime, for then : — 

" Man in the sunshine of the world's new spring 
Shall walk transparent, like some holy thing." 



CHAPTER VII. 



MYSTERIES REVEALED. 



Psychometky elucidates many mysterious subjects ; 
shedding light upon those departments of Nature 
whose gloom has deterred almost every investigator. 



FORTUNE-TELLING. 



It is a notorious fact that many fortune-tellers do 
tell incidents in the lives of those who visit them; 
sometimes, indeed, they give an outline of their past 
histories, though entirely unacquainted with the per- 
sons. The reason seems to be, that we carry with us, 
wherever we go, the history of our lives, which are 
raying from us continually. Sensitive persons can 
read this history, when they come into our presence, 
somewhat as the past history of fossils and pebbles, re- 
corded in this volume, were obtained. In this way we 
may account for the great success of some fortune-tel- 
lers, and the interest taken in them by intelligent per- 
sons. Mademoiselle Lenormond, a celebrated fortune- 
teller of Paris, amassed a fortune of 500,000 francs, 
She was consulted by Eobespierre, Barras, Josephine 
Louis XVIII., and Madame de Stael ; and this could 
hardly have been, unless she had possessed some ex- 
traordinary power, by which she could in some way 
satisfy the intelligence of her visitors. Zschokke, the 



290 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

celebrated German author, whom I have previously 
quoted, seems to have been sensitive enough to re- 
ceive impressions from individuals in this way. He 
says : — 

" I am almost afraid to speak of this, not because 
I am afraid to be thought superstitious, but that I 
may thereby strengthen such feelings in others ; and 
yet it may be an addition to our stock of soul-experi- 
ence, and therefore I will confess ! It has happened 
to me sometimes on my first meeting with strangers, 
as I listened silently to their discourse, that their for- 
mer life, with many trifling circumstances therewith 
connected, or frequently some particular scene in that 
life, has passed quite involuntarily, and as it were 
dream-like, yet perfectly distinct before me. During 
this time I usually feel so entirely absorbed in the con- 
templation of the stranger's life, that at last I no longer 
see clearly the face of the unknown wherein I unde- 
signedly read, nor distinctly hear the voices of the 
speakers, which before served as a commentary to the 
text of their features. For a long time I held such vis- 
ions as delusions of the fancy, and the more so as they 
showed me even the dress and motions of the actors, 
rooms, furniture, and other accessories. By way of 
jest, I once, in a familiar family circle at Kirchberg, re- 
lated the secret history of a seamstress who had just 
left the room and the house. I had never seen her 
before in my life; the people were astonished, and' 
laughed, hut were not to bo persuaded that I did not 
previously know that of which I spoke; for what I ut- 
tered was the literal truth. I on my part was not less i 
astonished that my dream-piotures were confirmed by' 



MYSTERIES REVEALED. 291 

the reality. I became more attentive to the subject, 
and when propriety admitted it, I would relate to 
those whose life thus passed before me, the subject of 
my vision, that I might thereby obtain confirmation or 
refutation of it. It was invariably ratified, not with- 
out consternation on their part. I myself had less 
confidence than any one in this mental jugglery. So 
often as I revealed my visionary gifts to any new per- 
son, I regularly expected to hear the answer, ' It was 
not so ! ' I felt a secret shudder when my auditors re- 
plied that it was true, or when their astonishment be- 
trayed my accuracy before they spoke. Instead of 
many, I will mention one example, which pre-emi- 
nently astounded me. One fair day, in the city of 
Waldshut, I entered an inn (the Vine) in company 
with two young student-foresters ; we were tired of 
rambling through the woods. We supped with a nu- 
merous company at the table d J hote, where the guests 
were making very merry with the peculiarities and 
eccentricities of the Swiss, with Mesmer's magnetism, 
Lavater's physiognomy, &c. &c. One of my compan- 
ions, whose national pride was wounded by their mock- 
ery, begged me to make some reply, particularly to 
a handsome young man who sat opposite to us, and 
.who had allowed himself extraordinary license. This 
jman's former life was at that moment presented to my 
.'iaaind; I turned to him, and asked him whether he 
would answer me candidly, if I related to him some of 
die most secret passages of his life, I knowing as lit- 
le of him personally as he did of me. That would 
&>e going a little farther, I thought, than Lavater did 
vith physiognomy. He promised, if I were correct in 



292 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

my information, to admit it frankly. I then related 
what my vision had shown me, and the whole company 
were made acquainted with the private history of the 
young merchant ; his school years, his youthful errors, 
and, lastly, with a fault committed in reference to the 
strong-box of his principal. I described to him the 
uninhabited room, with whitened walls, where, to the 
right of the brown door, on a table, stood a black 
money-box, &c. &c. A silence prevailed during the 
whole narration, which I alone occasionally interrup- 
ted, by inquiring whether I spoke the truth. The 
startled young man confirmed every particular, and 
even, what I had scarcely expected, the last mentioned, 
Touched by his candor, I shook hands with him over 
the table, and said no more. He asked my name, 
which I gave him, and we remained together talking 
till past midnight." 

Zschokke, referring to this power of his, subsequently 
adds : — " i What demon inspires you ? Must I again 
believe in possession ? 7 exclaimed the spiritual Johann 
Von Riga, when, in the first hour of our acquaintance, 
I related his past life to him, with the avowed object 
of learning whether or not I deceived myself. Wc d 
speculated long on the enigma, but even his penetra- 
tion could not solve it." In his last reference to this 
remarkable power, which enabled him to read the his- 
tory of individuals, as the psychomotors mentioned in 
this volume read the history of things, he says : 
" Not another word about this strange seer-gift, whicl 
I can aver was of no use to me in a single instance 
which manifested itself occasionally only, and quite in 
dependent!? of any volition, and often in relation toffe 



MYSTERIES REVEALED. 293 

! persons in whose history I took not the slightest inter- 
' est. Nor am I the only one in possession of this fac- 
i ulty. In a journey with two of my sons, I fell in with 
, an old Tyrolese, who travelled about selling lemons 
! and oranges, at the inn at Unterhauerstein, in one of 
i the Jura passes. He fixed his eyes for some time 
! upon me, joined in our conversation, observed that, 
; though I did not know him, he knew me, and began to 
i describe my acts and deeds, to the no little amusement 
11 of the peasants, and astonishment of my children, 
f whom it interested to learn that another possessed the 
I same gift as their father. How the old lemon-merchant 
J acquired his knowledge, he was not able to explain to 
] l himself, nor to me ; but he seemed to attach great im- 
portance to his hidden wisdom. 7 ' 

That some persons are possessed of the power of 
telling the past history of individuals who are perfect 
strangers to them, is most evident then; and where 
the past is told correctly thus, it is easy to become 
uc credited with the power of telling the future, though 
ithe ability to do the one by no means proves the abil- 
jiity to do the other. I do not deny that this can be 
done, but I have not had as yet sufficient evidence to 
i satisfy me. 



Into the land of dreams, over whose boundary phi- 
losophy never ventures, where the law of gravitation 
is suspended, over whose fields the living and dead 
awalk and converse, where beggars are kings and 
(fpeens, and where kings and queens, terror-stricken, 
i lee, pursued by avenging ghosts, boldly marches psy- 



294 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

chometry, and maps out for us a portion of this en- 
chanted land. Persons who have been examining 
specimens for me have sometimes fallen asleep, and, 
on relating their dreams, I have, at times, been able to 
trace a direct connection between them and the arti- 
cles that they were examining. In some cases they 
were evidently a continuation of the psychometric 
examination, revealing facts of which previously the 
dreamer knew nothing. Many of the visions seen by 
us in our sleeping hours may proceed directly from 
the objects we have handled through the day, the per- 
sons we have come in contact with, the food we have 
swallowed, or the bed we lie upon. Yery sensitive 
persons may be affected by influences so slight that it 
would appear, to one unacquainted with these matters, 
utterly impossible for them to affect an individual. 

" Several years ago, during a severe winter, the 
Schuylkill River, near Philadelphia, became thickly 
bridged over with ice, and thousands of persons re- 
sorted thither for the exercise of skating, sliding, etc. 
Among other inventions for the amusement of those 
visiting the place, there was a post sunk through the 
ice, at the top of which there was a pivot and a horizon- 
tal revolving arm or shaft attached to it. To the end 
of this the drag-ropes of sleds were attached, so that, 
by pushing the shaft, the sleds, with persons on them, 
might be made to revolve swiftly in a circle upon the 
ice. Among the rest, a negro got upon the sled, and 
the person in charge of (ho shaft caused it, for sport, 
In revolve so violently that the negro was thrown out- 
ward by the centrifugal force, and, striking violently 
against a large projecting piece of ice, was instantly 



MYSTERIES KEVEALED. 295 

killed. This occurrence was witnessed by a physician, 
a friend of my informant, who happened to be present. 
On that same evening the physician had occasion to 
prepare a dose of pills for one of his patients, a lady 
extremely susceptible to magnetic influences. As he 
was mixing the ingredients of the pills, and rolling 
them in his fingers, he related, in all its particulars, to 
persons in his office, the occurrence he had witnessed 
on the river during the day. The pills were afterward 
dispatched to the lady by another person. The next 
day the physician, seeing one of the lady's family, 
inquired concerning her health. In the answer that 
was returned it was stated, among other things, that 
she had a singular dream the night previous. She 
dreamed that she was somewhere on the ice, where 
many people were sliding and skating; that she had 
there seen a negro thrown from a revolving sled 
against a cake of ice and instantly killed, etc. Her 
dream, as related, was an exact reproduction of all the 
essential statements of facts which had, without her 
knowledge, been given by the physician while he was 
preparing the pills, and concerning which fact she had 
received no information from any quarter." * 

As the doctor rolled the pills in his fingers, his influ- 
ence was communicated to them, and, when swallowed 
by his patient, a direct psychometric line of commu- 
nication was established between them. Along that 
passes the inquiring soul, and receives from his the 
image so recently and so strongly impressed there, 
and thus the dream. 

There are many facts to show that persons asleep 

* American Phrenological Journal. 



29 8 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

are much more sensitive to refined influences than 
when awake ; and many remarkable circumstances re- 
lated to dreaming may be explained when the enlarged 
powers of the soul, which psychometry familiarizes us 
with, are taken into account. 

When at Canadice, in the State of New York, a gen- 
tleman of that place, named A. C. Bishop, informed me 
of a singular dream that he had. During a snow-storm 
in the previous March, the stage broke through a 
bridge about _half a mile above the village, was over- 
turned into the water, and the mail-bag swept down 
the creek. Many persons sought for it day after day, 
among whom was Mr. Bishop himself. It was all in 
vain, however, and they came to the conclusion that it 
must have been washed away and covered up with the 
gravel carried down by the stream to its mouth. A 
month after this, when the snow had all melted off the 
ground, he dreamed that he saw the mail-bag lying in 
a certain place. So strongly did the dream impress 
him that he awoke, but slept again and dreamed it a 
second time. In the morning he told his dream to 
several persons in the shop, who laughed at the idea 
of finding the mail-bag then ; but on going to the 
place, which he immediately did, " I found it," said ho, 
" not ten feet from the place where I dreamed that it 
was." 

A Methodist clergyman at Carleton Place, Canada 
West, informed mo that a gentleman of his acquaint- 
ance, having on his finger a heavy gold ring, went out 
in a boat on the Mississippi River, a small stream in 
the neighborhood, on a pleasure excursion. On his 
return lie discovered that the ring was gone. After 



MYSTERIES REVEALED. 297 

searching for some time in vain, all gave it up as lost. 
A young woman who lived in a house near the river, 
and who was acquainted with the parties and the cir- 
cumstance, dreamed that night that she was on the 
river bank, and, looking into the water, saw the ring 
by the edge of a particular stone. She told her dream 
next morning, and, on proceeding to the spot, the ring 
was found in the identical place where she had ob- 
served it in her dream. 

As psychometers discover the condition of distant 
objects that they have never beheld, so dreamers find 
what in the waking condition they might look for in 
vain. How this is accomplished is not so easy to 
explain. 

RELICS AND AMULETS. 

Veneration for relics seems to most educated people 
absurd enough, and furnishes food for the mirthfulness 
iiof some, as it does for the trickery of others. There 
is said co be* as much wood of the " true cross " as 
would build a man-of-war, and as many teeth of St. 
• John as would fill a peck measure. Yet, despite the 
superstition that may hide in the love of relics, there 
is a foundation in truth for it, as indeed there is in 
almost every superstition, or they could never spring 
up among so widely distributed peoples and outlast 
man's most enduring monuments. Belief in relics, 
charms, and amulets, has its root in the nature of 
things. A pebble from Jerusalem is very different 
from one picked up on Dover beach, although no 
chemical analysis could reveal it. Both are flint, both 
rounded by the action of the water, and yet they are 



298 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

as different psychornetricaliy as the history of the 
United States is from that of Greece. 

An amulet handled by a strong, healthy man, conse- 
quently imbued with his influence, and then worn by 
a diseased person, might be of great benefit, especially 
to very sensitive persons, and in cases of nervous dis- 
ease. The laying on of hands is not in all cases 
"mere idle mummery,'' and the belief in the sacred 
character of buildings and particular articles is in ac- 
cordance with many facts that cannot be denied. 

What would not a Jew give for some object that 
Moses had handled; or a Christian for some undoubted 
relic of his Master? While I write this, furniture made 
from the Old Elm on Boston Common is advertised for 
sale. Would not the wood of some other old elm be 
just as good ? No. That wood contains the spirit of 
Boston, is permeated with the soul of the old revolu- 
tionary times, and knows a thousand times more about 
the place than the oldest inhabitant. The buyer may 
not dream of it, but this unrecognized truth augments 
its price, notwithstanding. 

HALL UCLVA TIONB. 

Hallucination has been defined as the intellectual 
state of a person who believes he sees and hears what 
no other person sees or hears ; who perceives things 
impalpable to the senses. Esquirol defines it " as a 
cerebral or psychical phenomenon, acting indepen- 
dently of the senses, and consisting of external sen- 
sations, that the patient believes he experiences, 
although no external agent acts materially on his 
.'' Under this head have been collected a va- 



MYSTERIES REVEALED. 299 

riety of phenomena, some of which psychometry read- 
ily explains ; thus transferring them from this wilder- 
ness to the cultivated fields of science, where they 
take their place along with other classified facts. 

The case of the painter, referred to on page 21, is 
placed among hallucinations by writers upon this sub- 
ject ; but how readily it takes its place in that of sim- 
ple psychometric vision. Since a stone takes in the 
images of surrounding objects and retains them, how 
much more does the human brain, provided as it is 
with windows for the very purpose of receiving, and 
a tablet for recording them. The image of the sitter 
received into his mind was projected upon the chair at 
will, some psychometers possessing this power ; and 
thus he was able to paint him accurately without any 
farther sitting. As the daguerreotypist needs but one 
sitting, having during that received an accurate like- 
ness of the sitter, so in this case, where an apparatus 
was employed as much superior to it as the works of 
nature are superior to those of art. 

Under the head of Hallucinations in febrile and 
other maladies, De Boismont gives the following case, 
taken from the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Jour- 
nal : " I was called in, says Dr. Alderston, to Mrs. 

■ , a lady eighty years of age, whom I had often 

attended for the gout. She complained of unusual 
deafness, with a great distention of the digestive or- 
gans, and was expecting an attack. Notwithstanding 
her great age, this lady enjoyed good health. She con- 
fided to me that for some time past she had been dis- 
turbed by visions. The first time that she noticed the 
occurrence, she believed that several uninvited friends 



300 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

visited her. Having recovered from her first surprise, 
she evinced some regret at not being able to converse 
with them, and was about to give orders to have a 
card-table set. For this purpose she rang the bell. 
On the entrance of the servant, all the party disap- 
peared. The lady expressed much surprise at their 
abrupt departure, and the servant had great difficulty 
in convincing her that no one had been in the room. 

" She felt so ashamed of the illusion that for several 
days and nights she suffered, in silence, the appearance 
of a considerable number of phantoms, some of which 
represented long-lost friends, and revived thoughts 
almost entirely effaced. The lady contented herself 
with ringing the bell, when the entrance of the ser- 
vant rid her of their presence. 

" It was some time before she could make up her 
mind to confide her sufferings to me. There was noth- 
ing either in her conversation or conduct to indicate 
a derangement of intellect, and she, as well as ber 
friends, were convinced of her perfect san^y. 

" The affection was relieved by plasters on the feet, 
and mild medicines, and was shortly afterwards en- 
tirely cured by a regular attack of gout. Since that 
time both her reason and health have been good." * 

The simple explanation that I give of this is, that 
under the peculiar physiological condition of the lady, 
her brain was brought to that sensitivc'.|condition Which 
LS oatural to some persons at all times," and that while 
in this condition she was able to see either the images 
of persons that had been impressed upon her brain, or 
I!m' various objects in the house gave out the images 

* De Bolsmont, Dreams, Visions, etc., p, 27:?. 



MYSTERIES REVEALED. 301 

that they had received, and she was able in this state 
to perceive them. The most probable explanation is, 
that they were the images existing in her own brain, 
as the manifestation of these would require a less 
degree of sensitiveness than that of the other. The 
persons she saw on the first occasion were evidently 
persons with whom she was familiar, whose likenesses 
she had treasured ; and of the other " phantoms," 
some, at least, were long-lost friends — friends that she 
had nearly forgotten, as she thought, but whose images 
had been ineffaceably stamped upon the soul. 

The entrance of the servant caused the disappear- 
ance of the images by disturbing the passive condition 
favorable to their manifestation, and rendering her too 
positive for their impression. 

Diseases, which weaken the physical powers of the 
patient, seem to produce a condition eminently favora- 
ble to the manifestations that we are now considering, 
and that are so frequently placed under the head of 
hallucination. As the exterior senses are deadened, 
and their power to convey impressions to the soul is 
weakened, so the interior senses become stronger and 
more active ; and what was previously unseen and 
unheard, becomes visible and audible, generally to 
the great astonishment of the party hearing and ob- 
serving. 

" Mademoiselle N was convalescing after a very 

prolonged fever, which had reduced her to a state of 
extreme weakness. All her family had gone to church, 

when a violent storm arose. Mademoiselle N went 

to the window to watch its effects ; the idea of her 
father suddenly struck her, and, under existing cir- 



302 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

cumstances, she felt much uneasiness. Her imagina- 
tion soon persuaded her that her father had perished. 
In order to conquer her fear, she went into the room 
in which she was accustomed to see him in his arm- 
chair. On entering, she was much surprised at' see- 
ing him in his place, and in his accustomed attitude. 
She immediately approached to inquire how he had 
come in, and in addressing him, attempted to place her 
hand on his shoulder, but she encountered only space. 
Very much alarmed, she drew back, and, turning her 
head as she left the room, still saw him in the same at- 
titude. 

" More than half an hour elapsed from the time she 
first saw the apparition until its departure. During 

this time, Miss N , who was convinced that it was 

an illusion, entered the room several times and care- 
fully examined the arrangement of the objects, and 
especially of the chair." * 

The arm-chair, in which her father usually sat, must 
have been thoroughly imbued with his influence, radi- 
ating from him as influences radiate from all organized 
bodies continually. And as these influences are able 
to reproduce, to the gaze of the psychometer, the ani- 
mals from which they passed, and that, millions of years 
after they were given forth, what difficulty is there in 
conceiving that the influences possessed by the chair 
produced the appearance of the father, as seen by the 
daughter, when reduced by fever to that passive con- 
dition so favorable to the observance of such appear- 
ances ? i 

That the image of an object is retained by objects 

i ■ Bol mont, p. 270, 



MYSTERIES REYEALED. 3l)3 

contiguous to it, has been noticed by mesmeric opera- 
tors repeatedly ; and it is doubtless one cause of the 
mistakes made by clairvoyants, who see what has been, 
instead of what is. I take the following from Cahag- 
net's Celestial Telegraph : — 

" Sometimes the image of a thing remains impressed 
in the place where it has stood. M. Teste, in his jour- 
nal, cites, with respect to this, a curious experiment : 
A female somnambulist enters a room and exclaims, 
1 What a pretty girl is sitting on that chair ! ' At this 
exclamation M. Teste observes to her that she is mis- 
taken; that no pretty girl is there. Far from giving in 
to this declaration, she sees one on each chair, and 
there were six of them. Unable to account for this 
hallucination, M. Teste contented himself with gather- 
ing exact details of the dress of these little girls, and 
confessed that a little girl precisely similar had been 
playing for a moment before the somnambulist entered, 
and had jumped on the six chairs, one after the other, 
sitting down on them." "I have often recognized," 
: says Cahagnet, " that the image of material objects set 
iin a certain place remained there for ajpng time." 

The excessive use of spirituous liquors seems to 
| produce a condition that is favorable to the observance 
of apparitions such as Nicolai saw, and with which 
some psychometers are daily familiar. Dr. Combe 
says, " In a case of delirium tremens in an innkeeper 
about whom I was consulted, the spectral illusions' 
continued several days. . . . The man refused to 
allow me to look at a blister which had been placed 
between the shoulders, because he could not take off 
his coat before the ladies who ivere in the room. When 



304 THE SOUL OF THIXG3. 

I assured hirn there was no one in the room, he smiled 
at the joke, as he conceived it to be ; and, in answer 
to m} T questions, described them as several in number, 
well dressed and good-looking. At my request he 
rose up to shake hands with them, and was astonished 
at finding them elude his grasp, and his hand strike 
the wall. This, however, convinced him that it was an 
illusion, and he forthwith took off his coat. In a few 
days the ladies vanished from his sight." * 

Another case is related in the Edinburgh Medical 
and Surgical Journal, in which a wine merchant went 
into the cellar to draw some liquor for a girl, when he 
noticed a quantity of oyster shells on the ground ; but 
on stooping to pick them up discovered there were 
none. On preparing to leave the cellar, he saw a sol- 
dier with a forbidding countenance attempt to enter. 
He asked what he wanted ; but receiving no answer, 
attempted to seize him, when he proved to be a phan- 
tom. During the whole night he was tormented with 
apparitions of living friends, or of those who had long 
been dead. He was continually getting out of bed to 
assure hirnselfVff the truth or falsehood of these visions. 

The use of hashish, opium, and the inhalation of 
nitrous oxide, or laughing-gas, seem to produce, at 
times, and with certain constitutions, a similar effect. 

Many persona possess psychometric vision when 
dying; and, especially, when dying by drowning. Dr. 
Conolly tells us of a person, who, in danger of being 
sw;iin]>r<l on the Eddystone rock, saw the phantoms of 
his family passing distinctly before him. The English 
opium-eater Bays, "1 was once told by a near relation 

! Correspondence or Andrew Combe, p. l?r. 



MASTERIES REVEALED. 305 

of mine, that having in her childhood fallen into a 
river, and being on the very verge of death, but for 
the critical assistance which reached her, she saw in a 
moment her whole life, in its minutest incidents, ar- 
rayed before her simultaneously, as in a mirror, and 
she had a faculty developed as suddenly for compre- 
hending the whole and every part." 

" Dr. Binns says, ' We are acquainted with a gentle- 
man, who, being able to swim but little, ventured too 
far out, and became exhausted. His alarm was great, 
and after making several but ill-directed efforts to re- 
gain the shore, he shouted for assistance, and then 
sank, as he supposed, to rise no more. ... Then 
he saw, as if in a wide field, the acts of his own being, 
from the first dawn of memory to the moment when 
he entered the water. They were all grouped and 
ranged in the order of the succession of their happen- 
ing, and he read the whole volume of existence at a 
glance ; nay, its incidents and entities were photo- 
graphed on his mind, limned in light, and the pano- 
rama of the battle of life lay before him.' " * 

Numerous examples of this kind might be given. 
They afford us glimpses of man's mighty powers, all 
but unused in this condition of existence. " We are," 
indeed, " wiser than we know." 

* Sleep, Sensation, and Memory,— Fosgate, p. 43. 
26* 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

Little knows the fish of the ocean of air above it, 
in which the bird swims ; still less of the starry realm 
that lies beyond ; and we, with all our boasted pow- 
ers, hold a similar relation to unknown realms. Like 
clams in a sand-hole, who know nothing of the flying 
clouds, the tinkling rills, the sunshine so glorious, and 
all the busy world of beautiful women and brave men, 
so we, deepening our holes with each returning tide, 
know hardly anything of the great worlds surrounding 
and interpenetrating our own. 

I believe that psychometry, as displayed in this vol- 
ume, and in varied phenomena, generally called " mys- 
terious," which are continually taking place around 
us, is but the exercise of those faculties which belong 
to the soul, and are not dependent upon the body for 
their exercise. Thus the psychometer sees without 
the use of physical ej^es, — sees the past as readily 
as the present, the far-off as easily as the nigh-at- 
hand; hears sounds that are inaudible to physical cars, 
;n id travels without the ordinary powers of locomotion. 

in Bleep, as I have shown, persons may learn what 
they never could in the waking condition; for the 
body, the soul's master as well as its servant, being 
powerless, the soul is able to exercise, to some extent, 



CONCLUSION. 307 

its native powers. In somnambulism, when the senses 
are doubly locked, so that the loudest voice makes 
no impression, and the sense of feeling is so com- 
pletely suspended that what at other times would 
produce intense pain is not felt at all, — in this condi- 
tion u the somnambulist can see with his eyes closed 
and bandaged; he can then even see what waking 
men in his place cannot see with their open eyes. 
He can read the contents of letters unopened ; he can 
see through clothing, wood, and metal boxes, and walls 
of brick and stone ; he can tell what is going on in the 
room above him or in the room below." All this is 
equally true of persons in a mesmeric condition, as I 
had abundant opportunities of satisfying myself in 
England, nearly twenty years ago. 

Fasting, the use of narcotics and stimulants, sick- 
ness, in which the powers of the body are gradually 
weakened, loss of sleep, and drowning, are all favorable 
to the manifestation of the souPs peculiar powers, so 
different from those of ordinary sensation. The rule 
is, apparently, that whatever weakens the body, and 
unfits us for ordinary sensation, in the same ratio 
strengthens these internal powers, or gives them an 
opportunity for exercise. 

May we not infer from these facts our conscious ex- 
istence after what is called death? the continued being 
and activity of the spirit, with a perfect remembrance 
of all its experiences, and able to travel at will over 
the wide realm of the past, gathering knowledge at 
every step, and preparing for the great hereafter that 
shall still await it ? 

Our researches and discoveries have been made in 



308 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

but a small portion of a great and unexplored domain. 
The very difficulty we have found, in explaining what 
has come before us in the course of these experiments, 
convinces me that we have been but coasting along 
some headland in an unknown ocean ; and that great 
continents yet lie beyond, to be discovered by future 
explorers. 



PART II. 



QUESTIONS, CONSIDERATIONS, 
AND SUGGESTIONS. 



BY ELIZABETH M. F. DENTON. 



QUESTIONS, 
CONSIDERATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



Theee are, perhaps, few persons who are by nature 
more thoroughly skeptical than I ; and, though I can- 
not remember the time when I did not behold objects 
or their representatives, by night as well as by day, in 
darkness as well as in light, with closed as well as 
with open eyes, I was very far from believing such 
vision other than in every respect illusive. Instructed 
from infancy to accept nothing as true which failed to 
address itself to my reason, or which could not be sub- 
stantiated by facts, I was by no means ready to accept 
any theory which should give to these illusive forms, 
as I then regarded them, a character of reality ; and it 
was not until some years after I had commenced to 
examine specimens by means of this vision that I was 
prepared to acknowledge it the natural result of forces 
subject to law, and those laws deserving of investiga- 
tion. I have, therefore, no word of reproach for those 
who hesitate to accept the statements contained in this 
volume until they shall have investigated the subject 
for themselves. I am certain I should have been one 
of their number had the evidence been presented by 
another to my understanding only, instead of having 
come home with its facts to the recognition of my 



312 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

senses. It was no one examination which convinced 
me of the error in my former conclusions, but the 
accumulated evidence of hundreds of experiments, all 
pointing with significant unanimity to the existence 
of this faculty in the human economy. 



To the minds of such as shall have felt an interest 
in the perusal of the foregoing pages, and yet have 
never recognized in their own experience, nor ob- 
served in their intercourse with others, any of the 
phenomena therein described, a long array of inquiries 
have, no doubt, many times presented themselves, and 
now clamor for a hearing. Some of these inquiries I 
will endeavor to answer ; to some I can only respond, 
/ have no answer. In attempting to present the con- 
clusions at which I have arrived, and the facts and 
reasonings by which such conclusions have been 
reached, I must ask permission to draw largely from 
my own experience. I would gladly avoid this, but at 
present have not in my possession, from other sources, 
the requisite material for the purpose, and hence pro- 
ceed at once to the consideration of those inquiries. 

QUESTION I. 

" In the first place, then, (granting the correctness of the state- 
ments and the accuracy of the descriptions,) how is this thing 
done ? Are these objects seen as we behold the flowers in the 
field, the stars in the shy, the lines in the hand 1 ? " 

Much, yet not, as a general rule, precisely the same. 
In souk; instances they pass before the observer a3 a 



HOW OBJECTS ARE THUS SEEN. 313 

panorama, moving with the velocity of lightning. In 
such instances it is, of course, impossible to catch 
even the outline of an object, however strikingly pe- 
culiar. Partial outlines may, indeed, be traced, but 
the object has passed from sight long before the out- 
line is complete. For some time I regarded these 
views as merely fragmentary ; and it was not until I 
learned that, by a powerful effort of the will, these 
flying scenes could be made to pause, that I discov- 
ered they were not fragmentary, as I had heretofore 
supposed, but many, perhaps all of them, objects, or 
their representatives, entire in their outline, and as 
real, apparently, as are any with which we come in 
contact in this every-day world. 

At other times, everything around one seems immov- 
ably fixed. There is, perhaps, only a small area visi- 
ble j but, however protracted the observation, this 
area, its lights and shadows, its boundaries, the ob- 
jects, if any, within it — in short, all its features, remain 
I precisely the same as when the eye of the psychom- 
eter first fell upon it, while curtains of impenetrable 
darkness close around all beside. 

Again, there are times when the psychometer is 
no longer a silent observer. Gravitation has lost its 
force ; his own will is powerless or inactive, and he 
finds himself an inhabitant of space instead of a 
dweller upon earth. His surroundings are worlds, 
and he, cut loose alike from earth and heaven, is mov- 
ing with a velocity that laughs the lagging winds to 
scorn. On, on, on he flies, tireless, fetterless, free ; 
smphatically free from all that in any respect would 
3heck his speed. 

| 27 



314: THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

But in these instances we must regard the psychom- 
eter as being in a state of utter passiveness. Ignorant 
of the power in his possession, he spends hours, it may 
be, in gazing at the various forms of beauty or of hor- 
ror that flit before his vision when all around him is 
quiet and his own mind is at rest. Knowing nothing, 
really, of the nature of these results, he knows not 
where to look for the cause. Such was my own expe- 
rience in childhood. Often have I amused myself 
until a late hour of the night with the scenes which 
came sweeping past, not my fancy, but my vision, as 
clear and as distinct as were any that greeted my sight 
by day. 

The cause of this phenomenon I then supposed to 
be the pressure of the lids upon the eye, causing its 
humors so to arrange themselves as to present these 
numerous and changing views. My mother gave me 
this in reply to my inquiries respecting them, and I 
accepted it with the trust of childhood. Very natu- 
rally supposing the eyes of all persons to have been 
arranged on a plan quite similar to that of my own, 
and that, consequently, every individual must realize 
the same or a similar experience, and thinking, far- 
ther, that, had there been anything of interest or of 
value connected therewith, it would long since have 
been Bought out and acknowledged, on approaching 
the years of discretion 1 treated this faculty as we 
naturally heal thai to whirl) Ave attach no value. Oc- 
casionally, ii Ls true, I would return to the folly of my 
childhood, and occasionally I was startled by some 
seemingly remarkable coincidence between the ap- 
pearances recognized by this, as Aristotle terms it, 



HOW OBJECTS AEE THUS SEEN. 315 

" internal action of the sense of vision" and the reali- 
ties of the outer world, as I would afterward find 
them to have existed at the time when I had observed 
them. But life was of too much practical value to be 
wasted in idle dreaming, and 'hence I allowed myself 
only an occasional visit to this ethereal land of ethereal 
forms ; and to-day, I have no doubt, there are multi- 
tudes of persons who have known such experiences 
from infancy. 

We come now to the time when the psychometer 
begins to feel an assurance that pressure of the lids 
upon the eye is not the only cause of this phenom- 
enon ; to the time when a succession of coincidences 
leads him to inquire if there be not some relation be- 
tween these singular visions and the realities of ex- 
ternal life. Are you that psychometer? You look 
the matter over, and wonder if the open eye cannot 
also behold objects in darkness. You try the experi- 
ment, and find that such is, indeed, the fact. Still, 
there is a difference ; and although that difference is 
in favor of the closed eyes, yet it is evident that the 
pressure of the lids is not the only cause. Again and 
again you shut the light from your room and look 
around you in astonishment. True, you are obliged 
to sit longer, much longer, perhaps, than would be 
needful with closed eyes, before you discern aught 
but the darkness. After waiting, however, until your 
anxiety has somewhat subsided, here and there a form, 
in part, is visible. It is, perhaps, a horrible face, or a 
beautiful flower. It may be a facsimile of something 
with which you are familiar ; it may be utterly unlike 
anything you have ever seen before. A moment more, 



31 G THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

and the darkness rolls over it. Indeed, it seemed little 
other than an outgrowth of that darkness, so perfectly 
did darkness envelop the larger portion of what you 
consider its proper dimensions. Each succeeding ex- 
periment gives you a more satisfactory result, and you 
find at last that pressure upon the eye has nothing 
whatever to do with the matter, and you must look for 
some other method of solving the problem, or the 
cause must remain a mystery. But, whither can you 
go ? Books are silent on the subject. The anatomist 
does not even recognize an organ in the human econ- 
omy capable of such vision, much less give you its 
anatomy. The optician makes no mention of it, and 
would, no doubt, regard it as an abnormal action of 
the eye which he makes his study ; and whither can 
you go? True, Mesmerism has induced something 
analogous, but you are not Mesmerized. You are as 
perfectly conscious of all that is passing in your pres- 
ence now as at any other time, and, so far as you are 
capable of judging, your condition is not in any re- 
spect an abnormal one, the only requisite being that 
of mental and physical quiet. You at length take up 
Dr. Buchanan's Journal of Man, Yol. I., No. 2. There 
is a sudden start of your nerves — your eye kindles- , 
you turn the pages rapidly, catching hero a word and 
there a sentence. "PsycliomctryV you exclaim, "what, 
what is this?" You turn back and commence the 
paper, reading carefully and devouring eagerly every 
line; of that startling article. Your cheeks are flushed 
— your eye is aglow — there is a, tremor in every limb. 
What now? Has \)v. Buchanan solved your problem ? 
Not exactly, hut he lias, at least, endeavored to traco 



HOW OBJECTS ARE THUS SEEN. 317 

to a cause some of the phenomena which seem to you 
inseparably linked with this inner sense of sight. You 
take courage, and at once resolve to experiment. Is 
there not some one whose cooperation would greatly 
assist you in these experimental researches? Nay, 
rather, you are fortunate if there be one among your 
associates who would not think you a fit subject for 
the insane asylum should you even manifest an inter- 
est in so wild a fancy as is the Doctor's theory. But 
you are resolved to experiment. With your eyes closed 
you select from your letter-trunk a package, which you 
convey, under cover, to the drawer of your dressing- 
table, and at night, when all have retired, still wakeful, 
anxiously waiting for such an opportunity, you abstract 
a letter from that package and place it upon your 
brow. With joy unspeakable you realize the various 
sensations to which the Doctor has alluded. More 
than this, }^ou see — see the face and bust, perhaps, of 
a friend who has found in your affections the place of a 
brother. You look around you, and you are in his 
room ; now you see his entire figure. He sits beside 
his table writing — " perhaps writing this very letter,' 7 
you think. You allow your fancy a moment's range, 
and you are ready to exclaim, "I believe it is from 
him ; I cannot doubt this influence ; it is the same that 
ever thrills me when I read his letters ! " But you 
must have some other evidence — the testimony of the 
chirography and of the signature. Noiselessly as pos- 
sible you arise, your confidence in the identity of the 
authorship of tins with that of the thrilling letters 
you have so frequently received from your friend dur- 
ing the past few years increasing with every added 



318 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 






grain that falls in the hour-glass. You draw a match 
and convey it to your burner, that you may be certain 
of the success of your experiment. I can appreciate 
the depth of your chagrin when the light reveals to 
your astonished gaze the signature of an individual as 
utterly unlike your friend as darkness is unlike day. 
Your friend is all spirit, all nerve, all life ; the author 
of the sheet before you is, comparatively, a moving, 
breathing clod. Your friend writes you because he 
must — because the thoughts are there burning in his 
brain and he is compelled to give them expression; 
and, as he traces the characters by which they are 
represented, " they breathe in every line " and gleam 
on every page. By some unaccountable freak in na- 
ture, the author of the sheet before you has fancied 
you, or you would never have had his letter with 
which to experiment. You are pained beyond expres- 
sion. " Bah ! " you exclaim, as you bring down the 
letter upon the table with a force which a moment 
before, judging from your caution in moving, would 
have startled the whole house. You turn off the gas 
and return to your pillow. How thankful you feel 
that no one but yourself has known of your folly. A 
reaction has come, and on the breast of Morpheus you 
gladly forget your vexation. 

Morning dawns. The first note of the robin falls 
upon your car and arouses you to partial conscious- 
ness. In 1 liis condition a cold, damp weight seems to 
hang beavily ahont your heart. Slowly returning con- 
sciousness brings to your mind the cause of this de- 
pression, and :ii once you are awake. Sadly you run 
over Hie events of* the preceding evening, — the slum- 



HOW OBJECTS ARE THUS SEEN. 319 

bering hopes which had been kindled to a flame, the 
experiment, and — the failure. Was it a dream ? Hope- 
fully you turn to the table, but the package of letters, 
and the same identical sheet that lies open beside it, 
convince you that it was all too real. You murmur 
that hopes so bright in their dawning are doomed so 
soon to fade, and so ingloriously. You think the sub- 
ject over once more, and wonder if there is nothing 
for the race but this continual groping in darkness. 
With a sigh for humanity, you ask, " Is this then all ? 
Has Nature, with unceasing toil, during all these mil- 
lions of ages, been fitting up this planet for the recep- 
tion of her sovereign, Man, and, after her prolonged 
apprenticeship, with the accumulated wisdom of cycles 
instead of years, and the united skill of unnumbered 
forces ready to do her bidding, must her last and 
crowning effort prove only a stupendous failure ? " 

The morning bell rings ! You must stop moralizing, 
and take your place with the stupid throng you now 
feel mankind to be. You arise, but before leaving 
your room, you must replace those letters in your 
trunk. With a feeling of mingled shame, vexation 
and discouragement you take up the package, when, 
lo ! there lies a letter from the very friend you had 
seen in your evening's experiment. A thought flashes 
through your mind, and if a thunderbolt had fallen at 
your feet, you could not have been more thoroughly 
electrified. For a moment you are powerless. There 
lie those letters as they have lain for weeks, — the one 
all inanity, — ■ empty as the space beyond the spheres ; 
the other full of the fire of thought, — the earnestness 
of a great mind, and the glow of an affectionate heart. 



320 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

Happening to have been in haste when you filed them 
away, you had attended to nothing but the order of 
their dates, and this from your friend, folded, it may 
be, inside out, had lain pressed upon that wanting all 
character, until the very spirit -of your friend was 
stamped upon the one as well as upon the other. May 
it not be possible, then, that your experiment has, in- 
deed, been a success? You think it more than possi- 
ble, and resolve to repeat it at the earliest opportunity, 
and with little fear for the result. You try again. 
Fortunate in your selection, your success more than 
realizes your highest anticipations, and you tremble 
with a joy you hardly dare to cherish. Is it strange 
that you begin to feel a measure of confidence in its 
reliability ? What an extended field for future explo- 
ration now opens before you ! " Where," you ask, 
" have been the sages of all past time ? What hand 
can have lain so heavily on the eyelids of a slumber- 
ing world as to have deprived it of the knowledge 
even of so wonderful a possession?" Your first im- 
pulse is to publish at once an account of your experi- 
ment, and the result. A little reflection determines 
you to keep your own counsels, at least for the pres- 
ent, and by a course of experiments, which you can 
yourself conduct, to gain some information relative to 
the nature of this new-found faculty, and the extent 
of its real practical value to mankind. Circumstances, 
no doubt, have more than indicated the wisdom of that 
determination. 



DAEKNESS FAVORABLE TO THIS VISION. 321 

QUESTION II. 

"Are these objects seen in daylight, or in darkness? " 

They may be seen in both. Usually, however, and 
it seems to me for valid reasons, darkness is prefera- 
ble. No one will ask me to prove that to the human 
eye a weaker may, by the presence of a stronger light, 
be rendered altogether imperceptible. Any one who 
has, in the dark, drawn a common match over a rough 
surface, has observed a line of bright light following 
in its path, only visible, however, until the match be- 
comes thoroughly ignited, when it is apparently extin- 
guished. That such, however, is only its apparent 
condition, may be readily ascertained by extinguishing 
the match, when the former, which is a weaker, and in 
some respects a different light, will at once reappear. 
So with that under consideration. Usually the psy- 
chometer sees by a weaker, and it may be, a very dif- 
ferently derived light from that which renders visible 
the tangible objects by which we are surrounded. 
Hence, it seems reasonable to conclude that the more 
perfect the darkness that shadows the outward sight, 
the more perfect will be this interior vision, if I may 
be permitted thus to designate it. 

Again, who of us but has been so blinded by the 
sunlight on the snow, for example, as to be quite inca- 
pable of discerning even the outlines of objects in a 
room we may have suddenly entered, when that room 
was as full of daylight as a common uncurtained win- 
dow could make it ? Yet to us, for the time being, 
even this daylight has been darkness, and we have 
found ourselves incapable of using it unf il the organs 



322 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

of vision have become accustomed to the change. 
How materially would the difficulty be increased, 
should we continue to stand in the sunlight thus re- 
flected by the snow, and examine minutely the con- 
tents of a room but dimly lighted by a taper of the 
olden time. Many of us would find ourselves physi- 
cally incapable of any such examination, while per- 
haps there are none among us to whom the task would 
not be indeed a difficult one. In many respects the 
sensations of the psychometer, when in the presence 
of any strong light, whether natural or artificial, are 
analogous to those above indicated, and hence, when 
vision only is required, one is often compelled to wait 
not only until the organs become adjusted to the new 
or changed condition, but until the eye has been wholly 
relieved from any sensible impression made by ordi- 
nary light, before these objects become distinctly visi- 
ble, or the brain is capable of taking cognizance of 
their peculiarities. 

May it not, then, with even more propriety, be said 
that in this, as in common sight, the ability to use the 
weaker is negatived by the presence of other and 
stronger light ? Be this as it may, the effect is the 
same. 

Farther than this, there are times when, either from 
some peculiar physical condition of the psychometer, 
or from some peculiarity of the atmosphere, or of both 
combined, the Light by which objects are thus made 
visible vies in strength, or illuminating power, even 
with daylight. Of several instances, analogous in 
character, the following will, no doubt, sufficiently illus- 
trate the peculiarity to which I refer. 



DARKNESS FAVORABLE TO THIS VISION. 323 

At one time, while travelling in the West, during 
the summer of 1861, we were compelled to wait a 
weary time for the train which was to convey us to 
Peru, 111., it having been delayed considerably beyond 
the usual hour. We had walked with our children 
through town until they were too weary to appreciate 
the little beauty left by the previous frosty night. 
They had exhausted the novelties of the station, con- 
sisting of railroad charts and a few dusty as well as 
rickety seats, and now began to watch earnestly for 
the coming of the iron horse. At length, his unearthly 
scream gave warning of his approach, and he came 
thundering past, as if resolved to visit utter ruin on 
those who would chain his spirit to the sluggish will 
of man. " Twenty minutes for dinner ! " sang out the 
brakeman, after announcing the name of the place, 
while a general rush of the passengers, some to the 
eating-room, and others to the various places to which 
they were destined, either for business or pleasure, 
soon gave me my choice of a seat in any one of the 
vacant cars. Taking the children each by the hand, 
while my husband gave orders in reference to baggage, 
etc., I selected a car and walked leisurely in, very nat- 
urally expecting myself and children to be, for a few 
moments at least, its only occupants. Judge of my 
surprise, on glancing around, as I entered the car, to 
find it already crowded with passengers ! Many of 
them were sitting perfectly composed, as if, for them, 
little interest were attached to this station ; while oth- 
ers were already in motion (a kind of confused mo- 
tion), as if preparing to leave. * I thought this some- 
what strange, and was about turning to find a vacant 



324: THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

seat in another car, when a second glance around 
showed me that the passengers who had appeared so 
indifferent to the arrival of the train at Joliet, were 
rapidly losing their apparent entity, and in a moment 
more they were to me invisible. I had had sufficient 
time to note the features, dress, and personal appear- 
ance of several, and, taking a- seat, I awaited the re- 
turn of the passengers, thinking it more than probable 
I might find in them the prototypes of the faces and 
forms I had a moment before so singularly beheld ; nor 
was I disappointed. A number of those who returned 
to the car I recognized as being in every particular the 
counterparts of their late but transient representatives. 

But the question arises, how could these individuals 
be seen in the car, when, in fact, they were not in the 
car at all, but in the dining-room of the station ? 

We know there arc peculiar conditions of the atmos- 
phere which render it, like the polished plate of the 
skilful artist, capable of receiving and of reflecting 
the images of objects occupying positions favorable 
for such reflection of their images. Of this we have 
ample evidence in the various species of mirage. 
That there may be conditions of the atmosphere fitting 
it. not only to receive and reflect, but also to retain 
these images, after the objects have been themselves 
removed, appears to be a conclusion not altogether un- 
warranted by faets. That, in the above instance, the 
persons or images seen were indeed the individuals 
who at that moment were in the station, I do not be- 
lieve. That the persons who had so lately been sitting 
in the ear, some of them, doubtless, for several hours, 
had radiated to the surrounding atmosphere that ethe- 



DARKNESS FAVORABLE TO THIS VISION. 325 

real fluid which stamps upon it these images, it being 
in a condition to receive, to retain, and to render them 
visible in open day, I regard as a simple, safe, and 
natural conclusion. 

Again, may we not suppose that every particle of 
this fluid, like the particles of all other matter, is sub- 
ject to the laws of attraction and repulsion? — that the 
particles radiating from each individual, would, unless 
prevented by some exterior force or interference, con- 
tinue to attract each other, if not with the same power, 
yet by virtue of the same or similar laws as those by 
which their union had from the first been effected and 
sustained ? Let us then suppose the condition of the 
atmosphere favorable for, or at least not in any way 
opposed to, the free arrangement of these particles in 
accordance with these laws, and I can see no valid ob- 
jection to the idea of their continuing for a time to 
preserve the form they have so long worn. This view 
of the matter of course supposes that the objects thus 
seen, however ethereal they may realfy^e, are, never- 
theless, material, tangible forms ; and in some instances 
I have no doubt that such is the case. With many 
persons the sudden appearance of shadowy forms, now 
here, now there, which by the time the eye is adjusted 
to observe objects of so aerial a nature are no longer 
visible, is an almost every-day occurrence. Of course 
they conclude their eyes have been at fault, — that no 
form was there, — that the appearance was due to 
some condition of the eye which they do not under- 
stand, which cannot be of any earthly consequence, 
and to observe which would, therefore, be folly in the 
extreme. At other times there are sensations accorn- 



326 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

panying these appearances, and seemingly so con- 
nected with them that one can but inquire if after all 
they are not worthy of consideration. And again 
there are times when the shadowy forms assume to 
the inner senses all the characteristics of animated 
life. At such times their presence may not be recog- 
nized by the outward sense of sight, and yet to the 
individual who perceives them, that presence is none 
the less a reality. Was it to this internal recognition 
that Professor Longfellow referred when he wrote of 



" All houses wherein men have lived and died 
Are haunted houses. Through the open doors 
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide 
With feet that make no sound upon the floors. 

" We meet them at the door- way, on the stair, 
Along the passages they come and go, 
Impalpable impressions on the air, 

A sense of something moving to and fro. 

" There 0tt more guests at table than the hosts 
Invited ; the illuminated hall 
Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts, 
As silent as the pictures on the wall. 

" The stranger at the fireside cannot see 

The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear ; 
He but perceives what is ; while unto me 
All that has been is visible and clear. 

" We have no title-deeds to house or lands ; 
Owners and occupants of earlier dates, 
From graves forgotten, stretch their dusky hands, 
And hold in mortmain still their old estates." 

And this is true nol only of houses and lands, but 

" Owner, and o icupanta of earlier dates " 



VISION WITH CLOSED EYES. 327 

than the human period still hold in mortmain the dust 
once animated by their life. 

QUESTION III. 

" Are the eyes open or closed? " 

They may be either. More frequently, however, 
when only vision is required, it is perhaps better to 
close them, as the objects which meet the eyes, if 
open, especially in the light, become mingled with, or 
wholly crowd out of sight the views under considera- 
tion. Some, no doubt, are better able to distinguish 
between the two methods of sight when the eyes are 
open than are others, yet I believe, judging from my 
own experience, and from my observation of others 
with whom we have experimented, that, under ordinary 
circumstances, the psychometer is able to give more 
accurate descriptions with closed than with open eyes. 
When the object of the experiment is not vision, but 
the exercise of some other sense, there may be less 
necessity for shutting from sight the objects by which 
we are surrounded. Still I find that whatever serves 
to disturb the mind, or in any way to call it from the 
recognition of phenomena for which the experiment is 
being conducted, in just so far serves to render it a 
fruitless effort. In my own case, this rule applies to 
any unhappy condition of the mind, whether induced by 
any outward unpleasant circumstance, or by thoughts 
having a tendency to produce dissatisfaction, or even 
unrest. 

It should not be inferred from the preceding obser- 
vations that all mental activity, or even intense mental 



328 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

excitement, is opposed to the development of these 
phenomena. On the contrary, the mind of the psy- 
chometer was, perhaps ; never more thoroughly active 
or more intensely excited than during some of the ex- 
periments recorded in this volume. In some instances, 
as, for example, in the case of the oil-bearing coral, the 
facts observed were, at the time, so at variance with 
all received opinion on that subject among our sa- 
vans, that the mere discovery of its true origin might 
be considered of itself sufficiently startling; while 
combined as it was with the discovery of the enormous 
quantities underlying extensive districts, both in the 
eastern and western hemispheres ; and not only so, but 
with the feeling that one stood in those ancient seas, 
while, extending to the right and left many, many miles 
away, and stretching before one for many leagues, was 
the glow and quiver of every rainbow hue, flashed 
back by the contents of unnumbered millions of cells; 
and with the reflection that every one of those cells 
had been the many-sided habitation of a minute animal 
whose very pulsations were throbs for the benefit of 
humanity, and whose life was a willing charity reserved 
for man whenever intellect should teach him its great 
value, — was to realize emotions that language fails to 
portray. But I must return to your inquiries. 

QUESTION' IV. 

tl But why designate this faculty ' sight,'' if the eye is not the 
medium by which these impressions are conveyed to the brain? " 

Simply because the one is no less sight than is the 
other. Apparently the same organ of the brain which 



WHY DESIGNATED SIGHT. 329 

recognizes the delicate tints of a beautiful flowjr, 
plucked to-day by the hand of innocent childhood; also 
recognizes the gorgeous hues of those ancient gar- 
lands with which our mother earth so lavishly adorned 
herself in the ages of her girlhood. That the power 
of vision in the one case differs materially from the 
same power in the other, is sufficiently evident ; for 
while the one requires, as a positive necessity, that the 
lids be open in order to a correct perception of the 
object by which the impression is made, they may be 
in the other, according to circumstances, either open 
or closed. While one requires light, either direct, or 
reflected from some luminous body, to enable it to dis- 
tinguish the objects within its range, the other finds in 
a pebble no larger than a common pea a sufficiency to 
light up a world, while we read the myriad pages of 
its thrilling history. 

But there are times when the closed eyes of the 
psychometer cannot see, and yet perhaps the true con- 
dition of that with which he is in communication is as 
accurately perceived as if the eye took cognizance of 
all connected therewith. In such instances the im- 
pression appears to be made directly upon the brain ; 
and when the individual has learned to discriminate 
between these direct impressions and the creations of 
fancy, or the workings of the imagination, they may 
be considered equally reliable with true vision. To 
those who have never cultivated this faculty, the 
above statement may appear somewhat incomprehensi- 
ble : but it is none the less a fact, only wanting proper 
conditions to render it evident to any understanding 
of ordinary capacity. The statement of Professor Ag- 



330 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

assiz, which, may be found in his " Tour to Lake Supe- 
rior/' may not be altogether inappropriate in this con- 
nection. He says, speaking of a certain fish, " I can 
distinguish the European species by a single scale ; 
but this not from any definite character, but rather by 
a kind of instinct." He does not here claim to have 
seen them, it is true, but what " hind of instinct " is 
that which enables him to distinguish the European 
from any other species, by a single scale ? Professor 
Agassiz has, no doubt, been too much absorbed by the 
investigations to which he has given the energies of a 
great mind, to permit him to analyze the sensations to 
which he so pleasantly alludes. Were he to do so, I 
can but believe he would find himself possessed of a 
faculty, compared with which, in the scope of its com- 
prehension, instinct, as defined by our lexicographers, 
is but as the limited sphere of the coral polyp com- 
pared with that of the free, intelligent man. On the 
other hand, a person of very imaginative nature should 
be exceedingly careful in reference to trusting these 
sensations, and believing them to be genuine impres- 
sions, with which neither fancy nor imagination has 
anything to do. Especially should great care be exer- 
cised where the supposed impression relates to, or may 
in any way affect, any other than the individual im- 
pressed. A world of mischief has, in my estimation, 
resulted from our ignorance of the origin of thoughts 
which, springing to Life within the brain, assume at once 
the character of legitimacy, and demand of us an ac- 
knowledgment of their claims to our consideration. 
Though there is no doubt that, at times, these thoughts 
arc; the offspring of influences existing exterior to, 



WHY DESIGNATED SIGHT, 331 

readily acting upon, and sensibly affecting, that deli- 
cate organ, the brain, but influences of a nature so re- 
fined that the outward senses have as yet no power to 
take cognizance of their presence, yet at other times 
they are, as the experience of all will testify, neither 
more nor less than distorted fancies, resulting from 
disturbances in the electrical or nervous forces of 
one's own system, and no more worthy of trust than 
are the changing breezes of an April morn. By a 
want of this knowledge, how many loving hearts have 
been sundered forever ! Over how many families has 
it permitted some deadly upas to spread its branches 
of blight, until the cup of joy, once brimming with a 
healthful harmony, a kindly sympathy, a tender affec- 
tion, has been turned to the gall of bitterness, and un- 
til the peace-loving olive has been changed to the 
wormwood of woe ! Throughout how many neighbor- 
hoods has it scattered the seeds of dissension, and 
nourished the roots of strife, until the beautiful plants 
of friendly, social intercourse have been robbed of 
their sustenance and uprooted from their place ! The 
effects are none the less terrible that any lack of care 
on this point may have been due to our ignorance of 
their nature or of their source. Like all things else, 
they must be studied to be known. Persons have said 
to me, " I can never understand my impressions. At 
one time a matter of which I had previously known 
nothing has been vividly impressed upon my mind, and 
I have afterward found it to have been in strict accord- 
ance with the facts. Again, an impression would be 
made, fully as strong, in every particular as distinct as 
the first and I would feel certain of its correctness, 



332 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

when I have afterward learned that in this instance it 
was without any foundation in fact, and perhaps di- 
rectly opposed to the true state of the matter to which 
it had referred. Sometimes, several instances occur- 
ring successively would prove to be in accordance 
with the facts to which they related, and I would 
conclude that, of a truth, my impressions had at last 
come to be reliable, when, lo ! perhaps the succeeding 
instance playing me wholly false, I would find myself 
acting the part of a dupe of my own credulity. With 
a cheek ever ready to crimson at the naked remem- 
brance of these instances, I have long since resolved 
never to heed impressions more, let their origin be 
what it ma} 7 ." 

But, my friend, is there any wisdom in thus summa- 
rily disposing of a power, the possession of which, 
when you have learned its use, and understand the 
laws of its modifications, may be found of incalculable 
value ? Depend upon it, these phenomena are not due 
to chance. They are governed by law, as the wander- 
ing stars are governed by law, and it is our business 
to observe and compare the facts of our being, and of 
our relation to the inner as well as to the outer world, 
if we would learn the laws upon which depend the de- 
velopment of that being and the harmony of those re- 
lations. ■ To my mind, the folly consists, not in the fail- 
ure of an honest endeavor to give to any fact its ap- 
propriate niche in the universe of facts, but in hence- 
forth refraining from all effort to do so, because, for- 
sooth, a previous effort has proved unsuccessful. 



MESMERIC INFLUENCE UNNECESSARY. 333 

QUESTION V. 

" Is no Mesmeric influence needful to induce the required 
degree of sensitiveness of the brain, and of those organs which 
convey these impressions to the brain ? " 

None whatever ! Except in very rare instances this 
influence should never be accepted by the psychome- 
ter immediately previous to an experiment. To those 
who have studied the subject, the reasons for this will 
appear sufficiently obvious without further elucidation. 
Eor the benefit of those who have given little or no 
attention to the subject, I will endeavor to explain. 
That there are individuals so sensitive to the Mes- 
meric influence as to give back, for the time being, 
mere reflections of the mind or will of the Mesmerizer, 
is a fact too well established to require argument in 
this connection. Now, let us suppose you wish an ex- 
periment in psychometry. You Mesmerize your sub- 
ject, and give to him or her, as the case may be, a frag- 
ment, perhaps of some rock, or a chip from some struc- 
ture, or a bone from some animal, with the nature and 
much of the history of which you are already familiar. 
The description coincides perfectly with the facts, so 
far as you know them. " What a wonderful phenome- 
non ! " the credulous bystander is ready to exclaim. 
But, how wonderful ? Is not the result in strict ac- 
cordance with the known laws of Mesmerism? You 
have proved nothing, either for or against psychome- 
try. The whole matter rests on precisely the same 
basis now as before the experiment. " But," you say, 
" suppose that, while in a Mesmeric condition, the psy- 



334 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

chometer is handed a specimen by a third individual, 
of which, both in its nature and history, I am wholly 
ignorant, and the description of which is, as in the first 
instance, perfectly correct?'" 7 Though such a phenom- 
enon has never come under my own observation, I do 
not deny its possible occurrence. But suppose such a 
result can be obtained, the same accuracy of descrip- 
tion may be had without any such previous prepara- 
tion ; and if it might not in all, it certainly would in 
numbers of instances, wholly invalidate the experi- 
ment ; for, while we know that by the establishment 
of a certain electrical relation between Mesmerizer 
and subject, the latter, for the time being, lives, as it 
were, in a world prepared and peopled by the mind of 
the former, may we not suppose that by consent of the 
operator a secondary relation, if I may use the term, 
may be established between the subject and another 
individual, which shall give, if not equally perfect, at 
least similar results to those developed by the primary 
relation, or the relation between operator and subject? 
And may not this be done by the subject simply com- 
ing within the electrical atmosphere of this third indi- 
vidual, who is supposed to be cognizant of the facts 
connected with the specimen examined ? If so, what 
right have we to conclude that the effect is not due to 
Mesmerism, as a consequence of this same electrical 
relation? The fact is, it is not to prove that mind 
cm read mind, that the experiment is instituted. It 
is to ascertain, if possible, whether mind, unassisted 
by the outward senses, can read the scaled-up records 
of fche ages from the merest fragment of that volume, 
on the pages of which are dagiierreotyped all the por- 



WKEKE THE GAZE IS DIRECTED. 335 

traits of the past ; and to do this the mind of the ot> 
server should be as free as possible from every influ- 
ence that could weaken the testimony in reference to 
the result. Becollect, the question is not whether 
this knowledge can be obtained, but whether it can be 
obtained by this particular means. The faintest tinge 
of light, then, that greets the eye of the psychometer, 
unassisted by any influence save that of the specimen 
you are supposed to have given him, is worth infinitely 
more in this experiment than would be the brightest 
sunshine that has ever blessed the world, if, for him to 
behold it, it must first be discerned by another j and 
the softest sound his ear is capable of receiving and 
distinguishing as such, is of more value than the thun- 
ders of a thousand cannon, if, to be recognized by his 
sense, they must be conveyed thereto by the force of 
your will. Nor can I believe that, as a rule, this influ- 
ence is of greater value subsequent to an experiment 
of the kind under consideration, than would be the 
same influence subsequent to the healthful exercise 
of any other faculty, whether mental or physical. 

QUESTION VI. 

"Is the gaze directed into space, or is it directed upon some 
object out of which these various forms appear to arise?" 

As soon expect the anatomist in a charnel-house, 
dissecting-knife in hand, and invested with full author- 
ity to select his own subject, to direct his gaze into 
space for bone and muscle, for nerve and fibre, when 
the objects of his search are within his very grasp. 
As soon expect the connoisseur to look for figures of 



336 IKE SOUL OF THINGS. 

beauty on the unstained canvas, while he is literally 
surrounded by that on which the artist has, as it were, 
kindled the quenchless fires of very life. I fear I 
shall fail to answer this inquiry fully, and to the satis- 
faction of those who have in all apparent honesty pro- 
pounded it. To an individual having any conception 
of the nature of this faculty the question is simply 
absurd. We do not look into space for the tangible 
objects by which we are surrounded; why should it 
be expected of us in the instances under considera- 
tion? Nor do we in common life direct the gaze or 
fix the attention upon one object in order to behold 
another, or with any expectation of seeing other ob- 
jects take the place of the first, under the influence 
of our gaze. Are we more likely to do so when the 
entire range of vision is crowded to excess with forms 
heretofore, perhaps, as utterly unknown to us as they 
could have been had they never had an existence, and 
forms, too, as startling as they are new? No; the psy- 
chomotor has little need to looh for objects. In nine- 
ty-nine cases out of every hundred he sees infinitely 
more than he can describe. He has little need to hunt 
up views; they crowd themselves into his presence, 
not as if endowed with lii'e and its attribute of locomo- 
tion only, but as if they read the mandates of the mind 
and hasted to obey. 

QUESTION VII. 

" But why, then, as iii numbers of instances recorded in this, 

rot a me. hilh of inability to sec objects distinctly? If the power 

,< \s in on i instance, so acute that the finest particles of 



WHY SOME OBJECTS ABE INVISIBLE. 337 

matter, as they arrange themselves in various forms under the 
influence of electrical currents, are clearly visible, why is it that, 
perhaps in the same experiment, there is an acknowledged ina- 
bility to discern distinctions which even to common sight would 
be strikingly appa?*ent? " 

Did these scenes hang silent before us, as do the 
pictures in the gallery of the artist, — were they fixed 
and immovable as are the landscapes of a country vil- 
lage, — inert as are the granite hills of our own New 
England, — then might be expected of us a careful 
delineation of all their characteristics, so far, at least, 
as the time given to the examination would permit us 
to observe them in the minutiae of detail. But when 
it is remembered that to prevent these scenes passing 
with the velocity of light an energetic action of the 
will is required, and required continually, it will be 
understood that the difficulties are of no ordinary char- 
acter, and are, perhaps, peculiar to this sight alone. 

Beside, the value of this vision depends, in a great 
measure, upon the ability of the individual to distin- 
guish between the nature of two influences, or rather 
the source of each, and at the same time to render 
himself positive to the one influence and passive to 
the other. It is, perhaps, needless to add that, in the 
ability to do this, people differ, and differ esssentially, 
as does the same individual differ at different times. I 
will endeavor to render this idea more lucid by illus- 
tration. Let us imagine, then, for example, that you 
have composed yourself for the examination of some 
specimen. The field of vision is, as may not be unfre- 
quent in your case, crowded with forms which you 



338 THE SOUL OF THDsGS. 

recognize as being wholly independent of any influ- 
ence derived from the specimen. Their appearance is 
involuntary, and their disappearance, without a change 
in yourself from the negative or passive to the posi- 
tive condition, is entirely beyond your control. But 
you cannot, at this time, pass to the positive condition 
without rendering yourself equally incapable of dis- 
cerning the forms or scenes resulting either from the 
one influence or the other. In other words, you can- 
not now render yourself positive to this first influence, 
whatever it may be, and thus banish from sight its 
resulting images, or passive to the influence of the 
specimen, and thus bring before you the scenes with 
which it may hitherto have been associated, while at 
another time to do this might be but the work of a 
moment. 

Again, we must remember that even in common 
sight the image of any object presented to the eye 
must be recognized by the brain, or there can be no 
true vision. "Without this recognition, the object may 
be there, it is true, and its image may rest on the 
retina, but so far as your knowledge of the fact is con- 
cerned, it is simply invisible. If this may be true of 
the brain in reference to common sight and the gross 
materials by which we are everywhere surrounded, 
how much more so in reference to that subtle sense, 
and to those excessively refined materials to which we 
are directing our attention ! And if true of the brain 
as a whole that it may remain passive to one influence 
and positive to another, why may it not be true of the 
brain in its several parts? I believe it maybe so; 
and that in this fact lies the secret of those irregularis 



NATUBE OF THE LIGHT. 339 

ties and seeming inconsistencies to which our seventh 
inquiry especially alludes. It is not to be denied, 
however, that there are sensations connected with this 
interior vision, which are not common to the outer 
sense of sight ; but as I shall have occasion to allude 
to this subject hereafter, I proceed to the considera- 
tion of 

QUESTION Till. 

" Wliat is the nature of this light, and whence is it derivedV 

To this inquiry I frankly confess my inability to give 
any definite reply. There are doubtless numbers of 
persons who will feel satisfied that the answer is alto- 
gether too evident to admit of any controversy ; and yet, 
were the answers of these several individuals to be 
obtained, they would be found to differ as widely as 
do the color of their eyes, or as their various methods 
of thought. To one it seems a necessity that this 
light, derived, as he supposes, from all bodies radiating 
light, whether natural or artificial, as well as from all 
objects reflecting such light, has, as it were, been drunk 
in and treasured up by the very elements of which 
the specimen is composed, and from the earliest date 
of its existence, only to be given off now, when the 
magnetism of the human brain shall have induced suf- 
ficient activity in the infinitesimal particles of the hith- 
erto latent mass. " While," he would contend, " to as- 
sume that all things, everywhere, are continually repro- 
ducing themselves or their images upon the face of all 
else, is, at most, but a step in reasoning from the known 
to the unknown, and one that may be taken with appa- 



34:0 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

rent security ; we have then," he will add, " only to 
admit that these daguerreotyped images are visible to 
the sensitive eye of the psychoineter, and we have 
the whole matter before us, with outlines so well de- 
fined that a few experiments would be quite sufficient 
to set at rest at once and forever all questions of 
doubt." To another, however, this method of account- 
ing for these phenomena is the veriest folly. He be- 
lieves that the human being combines two distinct na- 
tures. That the outer — the physical — is simply the 
medium through which the inner — the spiritual — 
sustains to the more gross materials of the outer world 
that relation which nature evidently regards as of vital 
importance in the perfecting of the highest workman- 
ship of her hands. That, while an intimate organic 
relation between these two natures is a positive neces- 
sity to the continued exercise of that functional power 
which is dependent upon the will, there may be, and 
often is, a partial and temporary suspension of that 
union or relation, granting to the spiritual nature com- 
parative freedom from the dead weight of the inert 
physical. That the spirit, in this semi-independent 
existence, assuming a measure of its native force, is, 
as it were, capable of annihilating time and space, and 
living over in an hour the countless lives of the ages. 
That the office of the specimen," which, by being 
placed upon the forehead, is brought as nearly as pos- 
sible to the brain itself, is merely, by its magnetic 
influence, to direct the spirit, or rather, perhaps, to 
lead it in the pathway of its own experience, when 
thus comparatively tree; from its earthly moorings. 
This, to his understanding, is a satisfactory solution of 
the entire; problem. 



NATURE OF THE LIGHT. 341 

While, however, I would most willingly accord to 
each of these views any merit it may justly claim, I 
cannot accept either the one or the other as the only 
legitimate answer to this inquiry, until the facts bear- 
ing upon this question have been carefully collected 
and critically compared. There may be truth in both 
these propositions ; but that a sufficient number of 
facts from the various departments of this science 
have been collected to furnish the needful materials 
for building a theory that shall prove perfect in all its 
parts when the dimless eye of research shall have 
pierced the last shadow, and shall have discovered the 
last treasure in the realm of inquiry, is, of course, not 
to be presumed. Indeed, that life will have been well 
spent which at the close of " threescore years and 
ten," can lay claim to the accomplishment of so mas- 
terly an endeavor. That, however, sufficient material 
has already been gathered together to justify the com- 
mencement of so wonderful a structure, when the sev- 
eral parts shall have been fitted to their places, is not, 
perhaps, an assumption without basis. 

Let us recapitulate ; and among the apparent facts 
bearing upon the question of the nature and source of- 
this light we find, — 

1st. That in this, as in ordinary sight, light is indis- 
pensable to the recognition of objects in the manner 
under consideration, — that is, by sight. 

2d. That in this, as in ordinary sight, light appears 
to be either direct or reflected, or it may appear gen- 
erally diffused, as is the case with daylight when the 
sky is overcast with clouds. 

3d. That the light by which objects are thus seen 



342 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

is overpowered, dissipated, or rendered imperceptible 
by the presence of ordinary light, if strong. Espe- 
cially is this the case when the rays are permitted to 
fall directly in the face of the psychometer, unless, as 
is sometimes the case, he can render himself positive 
to ordinary light, and passive to that under considera- 
tion. But, whether this light be of the same nature 
as common light, differing only in intensity, or whether 
they be two distinctly differing elements or principles, 
it is, perhaps, more difficult to preserve toward them 
this twofold — this positive and negative or receptive 
— relation than toward any other influences by which 
we are surrounded, and which is so readily recognized 
by both the exterior and interior faculties. 

This light, unperceived by the outward sense of 
vision, at least under ordinary circumstances, and 
hence not generally recognized as a subject for scien- 
tific investigation, I take the liberty to designate La- 
tent Light, until some name shall be substituted more 
clearly expressive of its several characteristics. 

4th. That latent artificial light (see experiment No. 
22, and others of a kindred character) is more readily 
radiated than is latent natural light; at least, that such 
is the case under certain conditions or circumstances. 
Whether such would be apparent to all individuals, 
or to the same individual under all circumstances, is, 
of course, as yet an unestablishcd, though seeming- 
ly a probable, conclusion. If such be the case, and 
I am inclined to the opinion that it may be, then, 
whether this difference in radiation be the result of 
some difference in the chemical or electrical forces of 
the two substances, if substances they may bo called, 



NATUBE OF THE LIGHT. 343 

or whether, from some other cause, the one becomes 
apparent while the other remains in statu quo, and, if 
so, the cause to which this result is due, I leave, for 
the present at least, to the consideration of those who 
have made light and its properties a subject of inves- 
tigation. 

5th. That if the light which reveals to us this inner 
world be derived from the specimen, there are abun- 
dant reasons for presuming that the latent light of the 
past, that of the present, as, also, that of all interven- 
ing time, may exist together in the same specimen, 
and, when conditions are favorable, may become appar- 
ent to the psychometer. 

6th. That in the examination of each particular 
specimen, the light by which its surroundings are ob- 
served corresponds to the light of the locality from 
which it was obtained, and the period to which the 
examination may be confined. To illustrate: — I am 
given a specimen I have never seen, and all knowl- 
edge of which is carefully concealed by the experi- 
menter. I take it with my eyes closed, that I may 
form no idea of its nature from its appearance. When 
in a suitable condition for an experiment there is no 
seeing " through a glass darkly." There is, perhaps, 
the glowing light of day, or the more dim rock-light 
of underground ; there may be the fierce glare of the 
volcano, or the soft water-light under the wave ; there 
is the glittering light of golden sands, or the spark- 
ling glimmer of silvery seams ; the clear, pure, life- 
giving atmosphere of the present, or the atmosphere 
of the long ago, laden with steam and heavy with the 
vapor of minerals and metallic substances ; the direct 



344 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

and searching beams of a southern sun, forever multi- 
plied by gorgeous bloom, while ' they are softened by 
the fadeless verdure of luxuriant foliage, or the weak 
and scattered rays of a chilled and snow-capped moun- 
tain peak, or of a no less chilled and ice-bound Arctic 
plain. Nor is this all. It may be observed, further, — 

7th. That with many of the great changes to which 
the specimen, the globe, or that portion of the globe 
in which the specimen has existed for ages, has been 
subjected, there is a corresponding change in the 
quantity, the quality, and, perhaps, in the very nature 
of the light which becomes present to the sight of the 
psychometer. 

Such are some of the facts; but the question, ""What 
is the nature of this light, and whence is it derived ? " 
is still unanswered. I do not pretend to answer it; 
but, in turn, I ask, Does the psychometer, in any in- 
stance, see only by the light contained in or radiated 
by the specimen examined? I do not deny it; still, 
granting such to be the case, between the light which 
renders visible this outer world and its multitudinous 
forms, and that under consideration, there exists, it ap- 
pears to me, a wide and, as yet, an unbridged chasm. 
True, by its discoveries science is gradually narrowing 
this abyss, and we may, perhaps, hereafter find that at 
their extremes the boundary lines of these two realms 
melt into one, or, possibly, that no boundary save the 
measure of our capabilities ever existed between 
them. Let us calculate, if we can, how nearly these 
two limits already approach each other. 

It is well known that, (or some time after exposure 
to the direct rays of the sun, the diamond and other 



NATURE OF THE LIGHT. 3-15 

gems will radiate a brilliant light, especially if placed 
in darkness. We have seen, page 29, that, even in 
the most perfect darkness it is possible to secure, the 
image of one object may become stamped upon the 
very elements of another, and that without contact. 
And in view of these facts we may ask, without ef- 
frontery, Who shall say that the radiation of the gem 
has ceased when its brilliancy is no longer visible ? ' If, 
then, the gem is capable of such radiation, — if a coil 
of string may, without light and without contact, leave 
its image upon the metallic plate, — is there any ab- 
surdity in supposing that the commonest objects by 
which we are surrounded are continually radiating 
that light, or those forces which, when collected, if not 
themselves visible, produce at least visible results? 
For years I have occasionally noticed, in rooms that 
no external light could enter at the time, a radiation 
from wall and ceiling which sometimes for an instant 
would flash with electrical brightness. At other times 
a quivering, wavy light, somewhat resembling the 
Aurora Borealis in some of its appearances, would 
float, perhaps, from one end of a wall to the other 
before it would wholly disappear. Of late I have ob- 
served these appearances more frequently ; and some- 
times, in rooms that have during the clay been open to 
sunlight, I have found it no longer a fitful flash remain- 
ing visible only for an instant, but of such even, steady 
strength, that, before any artificial light has been intro- 
duced for the evening, I have been able to read and 
write by it after daylight had become altogether insuf- 
ficient to enable me to perform such labor. In such 
instances, may it not be inferred that, by exposure to 



346 THE SOUL OP THINGS. 

the light of day, the active principle of this element, 
be it what it may, becomes excited and its effects 
greatly intensified? And yet, except as in the case 
of the gem, it may be doubted whether even this in- 
tensified radiation would be observed by the outward 
eye in its normal condition. So closely, however, is 
the sensation in these instances allied to that of com- 
mon sight, that only the fact that persons, whose exter- 
nal organs of visions are even stronger than my own, 
have been unable to discern it has led me to suppose 
it possible the recognition may be due to some other 
than the outward faculty of sight. 

Thus far the facts appear in favor of the supposition 
that the psychometer sees only the daguerreotyped 
images of past or present forms. But there is another 
class of facts to which I must call attention, and which 
may, I fear, be regarded as even more incomprehensi- 
ble than is that class already considered. I refer to 
those sensations which seem to indicate actual exist- 
ence in the locality whence the specimen was obtained, 
and not only so, but existence in the locality at the 
time of the occurrence to which the examination re- 
lates ; for, instead of being at all times seen directly 
before the face, as it seems to mo wo might reasonably 
expect were these images contained in the specimen, 
the psychometer is not unfrequcntly compelled to look 
up, or down, or at either side of his own position, to 
look near by him, or afar off, as the case may require, 
to turn round, or change his position, so that scenery 
which was at one time in the rear of that position may 
now be before liis face, in order to obtain a clear view 
of if, as any one would find it needful to do were he 



NATURE OF THE LIGHT. 347 

actually in the same locality and desirous of beholding 
all that might come withiD the sphere of his vision in 
every direction. In short, the entire sensation is as 
if he lived and moved, perhaps in the light and atmos" 
phere of to-day, perhaps in that of a million years ago, 
himself a living, sentient being amid living forms ; not 
merely beholding their daguerreotyped images upon 
the flinty fragment, but an observer of the life and 
habits of those beings, as if they swarmed the waters 
of the present seas, or roamed the earth to-day, rather 
than centuries agone. And this sensation is not unfre- 
quently so absolute, the consciousness of an existence 
in the then and there is so perfect, so vivid, that a sud- 
den return to the now and here, to a recognition of 
the occurrences of the present, may be attended by 
a shock, with nervous derangements that are some- 
times felt for hours afterward. This sensation is some- 
what analogous to that produced by the galvanic bat- 
tery, though it may be, perhaps, more refined in its 
nature, and, if possible, more thoroughly diffused 
through the system. There are times, it is true, 
when none of these sensations are realized — when 
the views have all the appearance of daguerreotypes, 
all the fixedness of the painted portrait. There are 
other times when all that is seen appears objective, 
indeed; but so diminutive are the objects, you feel 
yourself at a loss for a criterion by which to judge of 
their real or approximate size. These are, however, 
the exceptions, being of comparatively rare occur- 
rence. But you ask, — 



348 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

QUESTION VIIL 

" By what means does the psychometer appear to himself thus 
suddenly to become a denizen of some other locality than that of 
which he is really the inhabitant? " 

We may ask, by what means does the mind project 
that thought which, in a moment of time, sweeps the 
boundary of the known universe, and returns to us 
again, before we are aware it has fled, or even that it 
has been fully formed ? Who is able to point out to 
us the operations of our minds in connection with any 
phenomenon of thought? Philosophers have, for cen- 
turies, puzzled their brains, and puzzled each other, 
with the inquiry, " How, or by what means, does the 
mind of the human being reach out, as it were, from 
himself and grasp the finite, or even grapple with the 
Infinite ? " But men and women have not ceased to 
think, nor yet is the speed of thought denied, because 
the philosopher has thus far failed to answer the in- 
quiry. Life itself is, as yet, an unfathomable mystery, 
but who, on that account, would cease to live ? The 
means by which we thus exchange the one place for 
the other, or it may be, perhaps, exist in two distinct 
and distant places at one and the same moment, I do 
not profess to understand ; nor do I assert that such is 
really the case ; only this, that so far as all the sensa- 
tions of existence arc concerned, I can distinguish no 
difference between that which appears to me, at the 
time, to be my life or existence on one side of the 
globe, ;m<l that which is my acknowledged existence 
on the other. Certainly, the senses — hearing, seeing, 



MOTION OF THESE OBJECTS. 349 

smelling, tasting, and feeling — are as acute in the for- 
mer as in the latter case ; while, in the comprehensive- 
ness of vision, the power and speed of transit, and in 
much to which all our senses are keenly alive, the lat- 
ter can bear no comparison with the former. 

Again, Can motion be daguerreotyjped? for it must 
be remembered that these objects are seen, not at rest 
nor in one position only, as if the uplifted arm of man, 
or wing of bird, had been caught by the artist, and, be- 
ing thus arrested, remained uplifted still, but each suc- 
cessive movement reveals itself, as would be the case 
were the being before you instinct with life. 

It may perhaps be answered, " The motions or oc- 
currences impressed upon an object, between two 
given points of time, have, of necessity, an order of 
impression; the image of the being which was the 
subject of the motion, is fixed upon the specimen or 
object impressed, in all the various attitudes it exhib- 
ited at the time, and in the order of that exhibition; 
and in that same order, or, if not the same, at least in 
an order that renders the apparent motion equally per- 
fect, and the apparent subject of the motion equally 
substantive in all its parts, these images become visi- 
ble to the psychometer." There is much in my own 
experience that greatly favors this view of the matter, 
and it may, perhaps, be the correct method of account- 
ing for these phenomena ; still, there is much which, 
as it appears to me, remains wholly unaccounted for on 
this hypothesis. 

But, again, you ask, " Does every grain of sand on 
the wave-washed shore, every atom composing the 
rocky ribs of this old earth, contain within itself the 



350 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

likeness, the photographic image of every object, the 
shadow of which may have reached it, even from a dis- 
tant sphere ? and does it retain a record of every act 
that has produced a vibration in some ethereal fluid, by 
which it and the subject of that act are alike sur- 
rounded?" I grant the idea seems strangely mon- 
strous ! Still, the fragment examined may be divided 
and subdivided, until the dust of its cleavage alone re- 
mains, and yet that dust will give you back the same 
extended views, — the same entirety of objects, in the 
infinitely varying positions consequent upon the activ- 
ity due to life, or upon changes resulting from the con- 
ditions to which, at least on our own planet, matter is 
subject ; and who shall limit the extent to which this 
reduction may descend, and ever with the same result? 
But if only daguerreotype or photographic images 
are seen, how is it that we appear to ourselves to stand 
witldn this vast circle of ever-active and ever-changing 
forms ? If these objects and these scenes have their 
only existence on or within the specimen, by what 
means, by virtue of what law, do the movements of 
the psychometer in any way affect the condition of 
that which he beholds ? I admit that instances of this 
kind arc comparatively rare ; still, it has been, and can 
be done. When, for example, I stood, or seemed to 
stand, upon that immense accumulation of vegetable 
matter, in one of those extensive fields of the Carbon- 
iferous age, ;nid by a slightly springing motion shook 
acres of the spongy mass, the motion of that mass was 
as really, to my senses, the result of my own motion, 
as could have been the case had my physical being oc- 
cupied a similar relation to a genuine mass of the same 



DOES THE PSYCHOMETER TRAVEL? 351 

material, were such to be found existing on the globe 
to-day. Now the question is, could we thus bring our- 
selves into contact with that which only exists as an 
image of the real? or is there somewhere in this infi- 
nite universe, not the image only, but the positive, the 
actual, the continued existence of all that has ever 
been? If, as philosophers contend, "the slightest 
movement of the smallest body produces results which 
diffuse themselves through all space and all time," may 
we not go still farther, and conclude that any impulse, 
however metamorphosed it may have become in its ef- 
fects, exists forever, in all its original purity? 

But to proceed directly to the consideration of your 
inquiry. In the examinations of Mrs. Taylor, of Lock- 
port, and of Mrs. DoViel, of Pultneyville, both of New 
York State, I observe the psychometer not unfre- 
quently designates her course from the present to the 
former locality of the specimen, by descriptions of va- 
rious places and objects which would be met by the 
common traveller in passing by the same route from 
one place to the other. Other individuals with whom 
we have experimented may have done the same, but 
if so, I do not, at this moment, recall the circumstance. 
Mr. Denton tells me, that of the thirteen specimens 
examined, at his request, by Mrs. DoViel, during his 
stay in Pultneyville, he- does not remember that she 
once failed thus to indicate her course. This I do not 
remember to have accomplished in a single instance ; 
and by what means they succeed in doing so, I have 
little or no idea. I may, at times, by the force of my 
will-power, after having reached the locality from 
which the specimen was obtained, move in any direc- 



352 THE SOUL OF THINGS, 

tion, and to almost any distance, either on the surface 
or below it ; and in the same way I may go backward 
in time almost indefinitely ; I may examine, with con- 
siderable minuteness, objects that would seem to bear 
no relation whatever to the specimen; I may name 
with tolerable accuracy, and at times with, perhaps, 
exact precision, the locality from which the specimen 
was obtained ; but I do it by a sense of the position I 
then occupy, instead of judging of my whereabouts 
by any knowledge of the course by which my position 
has been reached. Indeed, I seem, as it were, to close 
my eyes on that which immediately surrounds me, only 
to open them on that by which the specimen has been 
surrounded at some other time and in some other 
place, and by which I then seem to myself to be also 
surrounded. Of course, this is not always the work 
of an instant. My condition is not naturally passive 
or receptive, — far otherwise; and at times I find it not 
only difficult but nearly or quite impossible to become 
so. For this reason I do not consider myself a natur- 
ally ready psychometer. Though by cultivation of this 
faculty I can now make examinations more readily, 
and with far less fatigue, than I could do at the com- 
mencement of our experiments, I have no doubt that 
hundreds of persons could "begin where I leave off; " 
lliat is, that in their first examinations the descriptions 
would be not only more full, more elaborate, than are 
my own, even now, but that they would be conducted 
in less time, and with far greater ease. I have spoken 
of these visions as having been of frequent occur- 
rence in childhood, but have said nothing of fatigue as 
a consequence, for the simple reason that I felt none; 



CAUSES OF FATIGUE. 353 

at least no more than one would naturally feel in look- 
ing at any panorama of interest. Of course, in time, 
one will weary even of sight-seeing. But the fatigue 
to which I have elsewhere alluded is the result, not 
of beholding, but of those efforts of the will by which 
one influence is refused, while another is received ; by 
which one object is retained in view, while others are 
prevented from taking its place ; those by which I 
move from place to place, or by which I force myself 
to remain in one position; those mental efforts by 
which, while the will is thus actively engaged in one 
direction, — perhaps in more than one, — I am at the 
same moment comparing objects then seen with objects 
familiar to common sight; examining structures and 
parts of structures, hesitating and examining again, 
that I may be certain I am making no mistake ; com- 
paring the size of one object with that of another ; 
measuring distances, calculating forces, and estimat- 
ing, so far as is practicable, causes and effects, condi- 
tions and their consequences. 

When these views are spontaneous, — when the psy- 
chometer is merely a passive spectator, as I was in 
childhood, and as I may become at almost any hour of 
the night or day, there is little cause for fatigue. The 
scenes may be pleasing and, if in health, I may observe 
or dismiss them, as I choose. They may be unpleasant, 
and I have but to render myself positive to the influ- 
ence by which they are produced, which, in my case, 
unless ill, or over-exhausted, it is not difficult to do, 
and dissipate them at pleasure. It is when the exper- 
iment is conducted for a purpose, and it becomes need- 
ful to con-rol the influence of different objects, — to 

30* 



354 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

distinguish between them, — to examine one object, 
while others are, as it were, held in abeyance until 
that is accomplished, etc., etc. ; or when illness ren- 
ders one passive, and lack of strength prevents a return 
to the positive condition, that these examinations ex- 
haust the nervous energies of the system, and that 
with a rapidity to which physical labor can bear no 
comparison. 

QUESTION IX. 

" But how is it possible, on any scientific or philosophic 
■principle, to account for the hearing of sounds, when the atmos- 
phere has for ages ceased to vibrate to the causes by which they 
were originally produced ? " 

If it be proven that we live only in the outward ; 
that we hear only by means of vibrations in the atmos- 
phere ; that the duration of a given vibration is depen- 
dent upon a given amount of force ; and that, when the 
sound is heard, the time elapsed since the force which 
produced it was exerted, precludes a possibility of the 
continuance of the vibrations, then, of course, there is 
no room for controversy. But have we, as yet, arrived 
at the ne plus ultra of knowledge in this direction ? 
Are we absolutely certain that sounds can be conveyed 
to the human ear only by the atmosphere, or by some 
outward, tangible substance, as for instance, a block of 
wood, or a bar of iron ? My own outward sense of 
hearing is far from being acute, and has been so for 
years, yet within that time I have distinctly heard 
conversations between individuals who at the moment 
were distant from the spot where I then was, between 



PERCEPTION OF SOUNDS. 355 

forty and fifty miles. Will any one pretend that this 
was the result of vibrations in the atmosphere ? I do 
not believe it. Yet, if you accept the fact, by what 
means do you account for the occurrence, but by sup- 
posing either that we may exist in two distinct 
places at one and the same moment, or that some 
fluid, infinitely more refined than is our atmosphere, 
conducts to our interior sense of hearing vibrations 
which the atmosphere fails to convey to the ear ? And 
who shall say when, in this fluid, these vibrations 
cease ? or that they may not extend outward in time 
as well as outward in space ? Or will you go still far- 
ther, and suppose that all matter retains in a latent 
condition whatever force may hitherto have been ap- 
plied to it, and that, by the perception of these latent 
conditions, the psychometer may, when this faculty 
shall become developed in the fulness of its strength, 
arrive at the facts of all past time ? 

Usually , in my own case at least, these sounds are 
perceived rather than heard. Sometimes they are as 
clear and distinct to the internal sense of hearing as 
are common sounds to the outward ear; and there 
have been times when I could not, and cannot yet, 
tell whether they were heard by the external or only 
by the internal ear, so like were they in all respects 
to sounds produced by outward, tangible forms. In 
respect to the inability, in some instances, to distin- 
guish between recognition by the external, and recog- 
nition by the internal senses, hearing and sight stand, 
I believe, alone. I do not remember that smelling, 
taste, or feeling — though when in the psychometric 
condition they may be acute as are hearing or sight, — 



356 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

have ever so closely approached the boundary between 
these external and internal realms as to render it im- 
possible for me to say by which they were really ad- 
dressed. 

question x. 

" But what is meant by ' going backward in time 9 ? Do you 
wish to convey the idea that the spirit leaps, as it were, from the 
present to the past?" 

I do not assert anything in answer to this inquiry, 
save that the sensation is in all respects that of closing 
the eyes on the present, and opening them on the past; 
or, where the effort is made to do so, that of going 
from the present to the past by force of the will. But 
by what means this is accomplished, — what is the 
cause of this sensation, — whether the sensation be a 
true or a false one, or what may be the philosophy of 
the whole matter, I can form no idea. I state only the 
fact, desiring that others may direct their attention to 
the subject, and arrive, if possible, at the true solution 
of the problem. 

QUESTION XL 

" But, if this facidty be common to humanity, why have 1 
no knowledge of my inheritance ? " 

Can you tell me, my friend, why it is that the room 
in which the loved one breathed out the last ray of 
earthly, organic life is still so very dear to you ? 
What it is you so distinctly feel within those wails that 
reminds you of the loved and lost? Why, when you 
pa?q within its portals, your eye instinctively turns 



CONTINUED EFFECTS OF INFLUENCES. 357 

toward sofa, bed, and chair, as if you expected the 
same fond gaze to greet you now as it has often done 
before ? Why you feel, to throw open that room to 
the sunlight, and the air, and to all the influences of 
busy life, would be to scatter to the elements a some- 
thing which, however undefinable, is yet a something 
that unites you to that past in which your friend, 
though with ebbing life, still thought and spoke and 
loved ? Nor are these sensations confined to the room 
alone. The clothing our loved ones have worn, the 
books they have handled, and, I may add, even the 
objects on which they have gazed with fondness and 
pleasure, have all a kindred power to reproduce sensa- 
tions of their presence. Who believes that the ideas 
so finely embodied in the following lines by Wm. C. B., 
(I regret that I cannot give the entire name, but my 
efforts to find it have been unavailing) live only in the 
fancy of the poet ? 

"BABY'S SHOES. 

" Oh, those little, those little blue shoes I 
Those shoes that no little feet use. 

Oh, the price were high 

That those shoes would buy ; 
Those little, blue, unused shoes ! 

" For they hold the small shape of feet, 
That no more the mother's eyes meet, 

That by God's good will, 

Years since grew still, 
And ceased from their totter so sweet. 

" And, oh, since that baby slept 
So hushed, how the mother has kept, 
With a tearful pleasure, 
That dear little treasure, 
And over them thought and wept ! 



358 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

" For they mind her forevermore 

Of a patter along the floor ; 

And blue eyes she sees 

Look up from her knees 

With the look that in life she wore. 

" As they lie before her there, 
There babbles from chair to chair 

A little sweet face 

That's a gleam in the place, 
With its little gold curls of hair. 

" Then, oh, wonder not that her heart 
From all else would rather part, 

Than those tiny blue shoes, 

That no little feet use, 
And whose sight make the fond tears start." 

Ay, mother, and have not " those little blue shoes w 
a charm for thee independent of the remembrance 
merely that thy darling once wore them? Art thou 
at all times satisfied merely with beholding them ? Is 
there not a greater pleasure in clasping them in your 
own warm palms ? a sensation as of the little feet within, 
upon which }^ou have so often fastened them ? And 
the hat that hangs against the wall, soiled by the little 
fingers, tell me, mother, do you ever take it from its 
place, but you feel the " little gold curls," as they 
cluster around your own fingers? 

Did we never realize their presence thus, save when 
our friends have passed "the shadowy vale/' we might, 
perhaps, conclude that to the still-existing spirit, these 
objects form, as it were, that 

" bridge of light, 
O'er whose unsteady floor, dial sways and bends," 



CONTINUED EFFECTS OF INFLUENCES. 359 

they come again to meet and mingle with their friends. 
But such is not the case. Our friends may have left 
us for a few months, or for a few weeks only. Day af- 
ter day we visit the room they so lately occupied, and, 
with that same sense, we recognize the presence of 
the absent. How many times, since the little one went 
home with grandmamma, only last week, have you seen 
the laughing eyes peep from beneath the little hat, 
and heard the pattering of the little feet ! And is this 
all fancy ? Trust for once, fond mother, to the answer 
of your throbbing heart. In a sense, the little one is 
with you still ; and when you shall have become suffi- 
ciently sensitive to these influences, there will be no 
wall so thick, and no distance so great, as to preclude 
the possibility of your holding daily communion with 
those you love. 

We perceive like causes producing like effects when, 
standing in the presence of some old ruin " that Time 
hath made," while the " ivy green " was gathering in 
its close embrace the scattered fragments of the lonely 
representative of ancient art, we run backward in our 
sympathies to the brain that designed, and the taste 
of a people Avhich made possible this outward expres- 
sion of those interior creations ; and this we do in- 
stinctively, and without pausing to call to our remem- 
brance the written record of its time. So with all our 
relics, — the products of whatever clime or age. 
From the tumuli of Great Britain, from the mounds 
of America, from the tombs of Egypt, from the sepul- 
chres of Judea, from the burial-places of every tribe 
among the ancients, wherever it is practicable, we 
gather these treasures of the past, and cherish them 



SCO THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

with religious care. And why do we do this ? They 
have a value, it is true, inasmuch as they furnish, so 
far as they go, evidences of the habits and customs of 
the people of those olden times. So have the histories 
of those times a kindred value, — histories written by 
men who have devoted years to the investigation of 
these subjects, — yet with what widely differing sensa- 
tions do we take into our hands a printed volume on 
Egypt and her once powerful inhabitants, or on India 
and her wonderful Cave Temples, for example, and the 
long fringed cloth, heavy with emanations from the 
dead, in which the mummy was wrapped for inter- 
ment, and in which it has lain for centuries ; or one of 
those implements of flint, by which the slender records 
of forgotten tribes have been handed down the steep 
of unknown centuries. The air in our museums — 
both public and private — is laden with disagreeable 
effluvia from these silent hosts, that so unerringly re- 
peat the stories of their age ; and in your answer, 
"It were sacrilege to wash them!" there is a volume 
of the richest meaning, — of the highest import. I 
can believe that a true warrior may derive inspiration 
from the sword worn by a brave and daring comrade, 
while that of a coward can be redeemed from its curse 
only by the hand of courage. I can fancy that a man's 
religious zeal and devotion may be intensified by the 
possession of a copy of the Bible, worn with frequent 
use by some heroic martyr, while had lie received the 
same inheritance, minus the influence, from some hea- 
then or infidel, he might have been less devotional, 
and perhaps far more critical. I can conceive it not 
only possible, but probable, that a natural tendency to 



DEPARTED SPIRITS. 361 

aberration of the mental faculties may be developed 
into actual madness by continued association with 
places and objects which have previously received the 
influence of the insane, unless counteracting influences 
or agents be greatly in preponderance ; and it has fre- 
quently been remarked that in places where one indi- 
vidual has committed a crime, another, perhaps more 
than one, has fallen a victim to the same temptation. 

In view of these considerations, how many of us 
can claim exemption from all experimental knowledge 
of our strange inheritance ? 

QUESTION XII. 

"But among all these ethereal forms, so vividly present to the 
senses, do you never recognize spirits of the departed? " 

I have frequently been asked this question, but I 
cannot answer it satisfactorily, even to myself. So far 
as all my theories, bearing upon this subject, are con- 
cerned, I frankly confess they do not admit even the 
possibility of such an occurrence. Still, had I never 
thus seen images of any save of those who had pre- 
viously departed this life, I should, no doubt, have 
concluded that if the question of spirit-existence and 
of spirit-intercourse with the living were not already 
settled, I had, at least for myself, strong testimony in 
favor of its affirmative. But when I see those who 
are still in life, though separated from them many, 
many miles; when, though thus separated and thus 
seen, I hear them speak as distinctly as I hear the 
sound of my own voice ; when I see those who de- 
parted this life centuries ago, engaged in the same 



3G2 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

pursuits, dealing with the same facts, and living essen- 
tially the same lives which the habits and customs of 
the times warrant us in believing they must of neces- 
sity have lived ; when I see animals of which, for ages 
past, the earth has borne no living representatives, 
and see all these as vivid realities, — the question be- 
comes to my understanding, at least, exceedingly com- 
plicated, and I confess myself unable to perceive that 
any theory with which I am acquainted can be made 
to cover all the facts. 

QUESTION XIII. 

11 But, granting the correctness of your own deductions, we 
ash, how is it that with a given specimen the attention of the 
psychometer is arrested by some one circumstance recorded in 
the great volume of its history, — why some one condition, or 
some one epoch, in that history stands out from all the others, 
bold and distinct in its every outline, — while that same speci- 
men, or, at least, every particle of which it is composed, has re- 
ceived its share of the modifying influences of all time ? " 

Permit me to submit, first, that though all matter 
may, as it would seem, retain the influences of all 
time, and may communicate these influences to the 
sufficiently sensitive, still those of organic are more 
marked, or more marked in their effects upon certain 
organisms, than are those of inorganic matter; second, 
that of organic forms the influences of the animal 
kingdom are more active or more marked than are 
those of the vegetable kingdom; third, that there is 
observable, SO it seems to me, a gradual increase of 



PREDOMINANT INFLUENCES. 363 

activity or force in these permeating influences as we 
ascend in the scale of' organization from the animal- 
cule to the man ; fourth, that we may go yet farther, 
and trace a corresponding increase in the force or 
radiation of these influences as we ascend from the 
lower to the higher developments of the human spe- 
cies; fifth, that, farther still, we may find that, by 
perhaps the same law, whatever serves to increase the 
radiation of these influences, as, for example, great 
grief, great fear, great gladness, or intense activity of 
any one or all of the mental faculties, serves, also, to 
render more effective their results, both primary and 
secondary. If this be so, and so it seems to me, then 
a specimen of any geological era, however saturated 
it may be with the influences of its own age, from ex- 
posure to the stronger influences of the human period, 
and the still stronger influences of some particular 
portion of that period of more lively interest than an- 
other, may yet more readily yield to the psychometer 
the influences of that particular time. And may not 
the same be true in a corresponding ratio of any unu- 
sual activity or disturbance among the bodies of inor- 
ganic matter, or even in the primary elements of all 
things ? It has been suggested that a specimen yields 
to the psychometer the influences it has received in 
the same order as that in which they were impressed 
upon it; but in my own case this is not, or at least 
does not appear to be, an invariable rule. Sometimes, 
beginning with past conditions, I seem to trace the 
events forward in time, and, to a great extent, in the 
order of their occurrence. At other times, beginning 
with more recent conditions, I seem to trace the events 



364 the soul op things. 

backward in time, preserving here, also, in a great 
measure, a like regard for the order of their occur- 
rence ; while on still other occasions all relation be- 
tween one view and another is wanting, and it is nearly 
or quite impossible to give anything like a connected 
account of the scenes or objects which so suddenly 
dart into sight and are as suddenly lost to sight again. 

conclusion: 

Such are some of the inquiries which seem to me 
likely, on reading the body of this work, to arise in 
the minds of those who have never investigated the 
subject for themselves. Granting the facts herein pre- 
sented, are we too enthusiastic if we indulge the be- 
lief that, with the general cultivation of this faculty, 
there will dawn a brighter day than humanity shall 
ever before have witnessed ? May we not reasonably 
hope for less of wrong and more of right, when men 
and women shall have learned that all on which their 
shadows rest — every ray of light which they reflect 
— become, emphatically, "recording angels," faithfully 
transcribing their words, their deeds, their thoughts, 
nay, the very motives of their hearts? Alas for the 
peace of the evil-doer, when, from every object by 
which he is surrounded, his own image stares him 
back in every attitude requisite for the consummation 
of that crime, and with a persistency that time cannot 
affect ! Alas for the plotter of mischief, when he sees 
in every Hag in the pavement, every pebble in the 
street, his thoughts indelibly recorded, and learns 
that the record may be " known and read of all men " ! 



CONCLUSION. 365 

When the slanderer learns that "there are tongues 
in trees " which still rehearse his truthful words with 
the lying accent, will he hasten to repeat the false- 
hood ? When the highwayman and the murderer shall 
hear the voice of their victim ring out on the evening 
breeze to every passer-by, and when they can no 
longer wash from their own sight, or from that of the 
avenger, the gore with which their hands are crim- 
soned, will they be likely to enlarge the stains, or to 
add another to the voices that already cry against 
them ? I am not dealing in fancies. If the influence 
of the suicide who falls a victim to insanity may be so 
treasured by the wooden walls of the room in which 
he expires as to present the psychometer, years after- 
wards, with a faithful representation of the sad, sad 
scene (and this has come within my own experience), 
are these suppositions unfounded — these conclusions 
but over-wrought fancies ? 

No doubt, when this subject shall have been more 
thoroughly studied, and its various bearings more care- 
fully observed, other questions will arise every way 
equal in interest and importance to those already con- 
sidered. Certainly, as I contemplate it, there open 
before me fields for investigation that seem to know 
no boundary. If we have correctly interpreted this 
" hand-writing on the wall" what is there desirable 
which the future does not promise us ? What records 
are here from which the historian may gather without 
stint ! What domains for the naturalist ! What limit- 
less realms for the natural, the mental, and the moral 
philosopher ! And how, to the utmost extent of his 
capabilities, may each revel in the field of his choice 



366 THE SOUL OF THINGS. 

without fear of exhausting his supplies ! Truly, its 
ultimate and inevitable results to science are grand 
beyond comparison ; its benefits to humanity, in every 
department of life, of incalculable value ! " He who 
runs may read " the promise of the future I 



INDEX. 



Abercrombie cited, 13, 25, 47, 255. 

" on memory, 25. 

Acton copper mine, 251-253. 
Aerolite, 68-78. 

" object of worship, 70. 

" Painesville, 68-75. 

" Aurora, Illinois, 76-78. 
Alligator leather, 112, 113. 
Amethystine quartz, 139-143, 241-243. 
Amphitheatre, Pompeii, 185, 186, 190. 

" Herculaneum, 194. 

Amulets, 297, 298. 
Andral, Monsieur, 258. 
Animals, effect of on human beings, 283. 
Anthracite coal, 126. 
Apparition of timber and vehicle, 22. 

" seen by Nicolai, 260-263. 

" " " Mad'lle N. 301, 302. 

Ararat, obsidian from, 217, 218. 
Armadillo family, 107. 
Arrow-head, flint, 218. 
Atmosphere surrounding human be- 
ings, 279. 
Autobiography of a boulder, 114-122, 

Bats, blinded, 86, 87. 
Baths of Caracalla, 172-174. 
Bees, vision of, 19, 20. 
Bishop, A. C. dream of, 296. 
Black Tom, 259. 

Boismont De, cited, 299, 300, 302. 
Bone from Tully limestone, 66, 67. 
Bone, fossil, 205, 217. 
Bone-bed, Youngstown, 124. 
Boulder, autobiography of, 114-122. 
Brewster, Sir David, cited, 12, 28. 
Brick-colored lava, 39, 40. 



Brick from Oswego, 63. 
Brodie on optic nerve, 16. 
Bronze Age, 215. 
Bruce mine, 237. 
Buchanan, Dr. cited, 33, 34. 

" " researches of, 33, 35, 316. 

Calabazal, fossil from, 110-112. 
Cannel coal, residuum of, 64. 
Caracalla, baths of, 172-174. 
Chamois horn, Switzerland, 98-100. 
Character, described from letters, 35. 
Charcoal from beam in Herculaneum, 

191-195. 

China, Porcelain Tower of, 151-153. 
Cicero's villa, 143-148. 
Clairvoyance, 88, 307. 
Coin, Grecian, 154, 155. 
Combe, George, cited, 17. 

« on spectral illusions, 22, 23. 

* Dr. on illusions, 303. 
Conclusion, 364-366. 
Conglomerate, Eagle River, 100. 
Connecticut Valley, fossil footprints of, 

57-62. 
Copeland, Dr. cited, 282. 
Copper, Lake Superior, 229-235. 

" Harbor, 230. 

" Mine, Mineral Point, 248, 249. 

" Mine, Acton, 251-253. 

" Black River, 272. 
Coral from Niagara group, 54. 
Cridge, Anne Denton, 35. 
Crocodile, cloth of mummied, 201-204. 
Crowe, Mrs. cited, 259. 

" " on perception of metals, 229. 

Cuba, description of, 111. 



368 



Daguerreotypes, 26. 

Damask, red, 160-163. 

Damon, Dr. case of, 258. 

Darkness favorable to Psychometric 

vision, 321, 322. 
Darwin, Dr. experiment of, 13. 
Disease, located by sensitives, 34. 
DoViel, Mrs. Lucielle, 89. 

" " experiments by, 89-103. 

Dreams, 293-297. 

Early men of England, 204-217. 

" " Asia, 217, 218. 
Eclipse of the Moon, 78-80. 
Egyptian funeral customs, 200. 
Egyptians, ancient religion of, 202. 
Emanations from all bodies, 28. 
Emmons, Dr. 130. 
Experiments, 37-254. 
Eyes, when closed, best for Psychomet- 
ric vision, 327, 328. 

Fair Penitent, 206. 

Fancies, 331. 

Farmer of Edinburgh, 49, 50. 

Fingal's Cave, 132-136. 

Fish-bone fossil, Painesville, 40-44. 

Footprints, Connecticut Valley, 57-62, 

265. 
Forces, radiant, passing from all bod- 
ies, 30, 31. 
Fortune-telling, 289-293. 
Fosgate cited, 304. 
Fossil, globular, 127, 128. 

" Tertiary, Cuba, 110-112. 
Fox, W. J. cited, 25. 

Gaze, where directed in Psychometric 

vision, 335, 336. 
Gibraltar, 167-172. 
Girl, musical, 47, 48. 
Glacier, action of a, 117-120. 
Gold, Luke Superior, 234. 

" Pike's Flat, California, 235-237. 

" Australia, 244, 246. 

" Pike's Teak, 249-251. 
Gulf near Lockport, 103. 
Gypsum, Mammoth Cave, 92. 

Hallucinations, 298-304. 
Herculaneum, 191-195. 



Hitchcock, Prof, visions of, 263, 264. 

" " cited, 264. 

Hood, E. P. cited, 263. 
Hornstone, Mount of Olives, 89-92, 155- 

100. 
House of Representatives, 160-163. 
Hutchinson, Mr. on Melrose Abbey, 166. 

Illusions of Hearing, 46. 
Images seen, 21. 

" " by Hugh Miller, 17, 18. 
Impressions, 330. 

" made by all forces, 50. 

Influence, why one perceived more 

readily than another, 362, 363. 
Insect, monstrous, seen, 38. 
Introductory to Part II. 309. 
Iron Age, 215. 
Iron, sulphuret of, 97, 98. 

Jerusalem, 90-92, 155-160. 
Jewess, vision of, 16. 

Kilauea, lava from, 38, 39. 
Kitto, Dr. 23. 

Laurentian rocks, 131, 132. 
Lava from Kilauea, 38. 
Lead ore, Galena, 238. 
" mine near Galena, 97, 98. 
" Wisconsin, 246-248. 
Leather, alligator, 112, 113. 
Lenormond, Mademoiselle, 289. 
Letters, reading character by, 35,316-320. 
Lewes, G. II. cited, 20. 
Light, refined, 85. 
" nature of that seen by Psychomo- 
tor, 339-347. 
" latent, 342. 
Limestone from Quindaro, 37. 
" crystallized, 131, 132. 
" 6laboffromNineveh,150,151. 
" stalagmitic, Thebes, 197-201. 
" " Gibraltar, 167-172. 

" encrinal, Mount Royal, 220. 
Lockport, gulf near, 103, 104. 
Lyell on air-breathers in Coal Measures, 
126. 
" on mask found in Pompeii, 190. 

MacCulloch on Stafla, 135, 130. 



369 



Macnish, Dr. vision seen by, 16, 17. 
" sounds heard by, 46. 

Mammoth Cave, 82-84, 92. 
Manifestations, spiritual, 56. 
Marble church of Smyrna, 148-150. 
Martial on destruction of Pompeii, 188. 
M.irtineau, Harriet, cited, 87. 
Mayo, cited, 261. 
Megatherium, 107. 
Melrose Abbey, 163-167. 
Mesmerism, 333. 
Meteoric stones, 77, 78. 

" iron, 75, 76. 
Miller, Hugh, images seen by, 17, 18. 
Montreal, 220-223. 
Moon, dry and hot, 79. 

" volcanoes on, 79. 
Moore, Dr. George, cited, 23. 
Mosaic, Baths of Caracalla, 172-174. 

" from Rome, 174-176. 
Mother-of-pearl opal, 136-139. 
Mount of Olives, 89-92, 155-160. 
Mummy pit, 197-204. 
Mysteries revealed, 289-305. 

Newton, Sir Isaac, 11. 

Niagara, 94, 96. 

Nicaragua, 136-139. 

Nicolai, 260-263. 

Niepce de St. Victor, experiment of, 29. 

Nineveh, 150, 151. 

No Drift, region of, 121. 

North Polar region, 139-143. 

Objects, how seen, 312-320. 

" why indistinctly seen, 337-339. 
Obsidian, Mount Ararat, 217, 218. 
Oil, Pennsylvania, 224. 

" Port Sarnia, 224. 

" formed by coral polyps, 226. 
Opal, mother-of-pearl, 136-139. 

Painesville, fossil fish-bone from, 40-44, 
Painter, anecdote of, 21, 22. 
Panama, quartz from, 38. 
Passengers seen in car, 323, 324. 
Pavement, Mosaic, 143-148. 
Pearl, black, California, 93. 
Pebble, Palmyra, N. Y. 101. 

" glacier-scratched, 101. 

" Lake Superior, 231-235. 



Petroleum, origin of, 223-227* 
Phantoms, 326. 
Phonotypes, 47-49. 
Pictures, in the eye, 11. 

" on the retina and brain, 11-26. 
" " surroundings objects, 26-32. 
" taken in the dark, 29. 
" seen by Sir I. Newton, 11, 12. 
'• " Dr. Ferriar, 13, 14. 

" " Niebuhr, 15. 

" " Dr. Macnish, 16, 17. 

Piedmont, woman of, 47. 
Pliny, on destruction of Pompeii, 188, 

189. 
Pompeii, 178-191. 
Porcelain Tower, China, 151-153. 
Potsdam sandstone, 129, 130, 234. 
Pottery, Indian, 113, 114. 
Psychometry, 33, 316. 

" utility of, 267-288. 
" to the Geologist, 267-272. 

" Miner, 272, 273. 

" Astronomer, 273, 274. 

" Physiologist and Anato- 

mist, 274, 275. 
" Artist, 275. 

" Historian, 275-277. 

" in cure of Diseases, 275. 

" its practical side, 277-288. 

Quartz, Panama, 38. 

" amethystine, 241-243. 

" Pike's Peak, 249-250. 

" gold-bearing, 244, 245. 
Questions, considerations and sugges- 
tions, 309. 
Quindaro, Kansas, 37. 

Rain-prints, fossil, 107, 108. 

Relics, 297, 298, 360. 

Reptiles of Tertiary period, 109. 

" " Carboniferous period, 127. 
Ring, surrounding the earth, 122-124. 
Rome, 174-176. 

Sandstone, Melrose Abbey, 163-167. 

" Western Reserve, 125. 

Scott, Sir Walter, on Melrose Abbey,166. 
Serapis, Temple of, 176, 177. 
Shell, Iowa, 64. 
Shoes, baby's, 357. 



INDEX. 



£ iiver mining, Washoe, 246. 

Smyrna, marble from church of, 148-150. 

Soapstone, Painesville, 123. 

Somerville, Mrs. cited, 29. 

Somnambulism, 88, 307. 

Sounds, registered on all objects, 49. 

" how heard psychometrically, 
354, 355. 
Spectre of key on paper, 27. 

" of corpse, 258. 
Spectral illusions, 22, 255-257. 
Spirits, departed, 361, 362. 
Staffa, 135, 186. 
Starved Rock, 114. 
Stalactite from cave, 80, 81. 
Stevelly, Prof, bees seen by, 19, 20. 
Stone Age, 216. 
Striated limestone, 45. 
Students, sensitiveness of, 34. 
Sun, seen by Sir Isaac Newton, 11, 12. 

Table Rock, Niagara, 94-99. 
Taconic formation, 130. 
Talbot, Mr. experiment of, 30. 
Taylor, Mrs. 81, 236. 
Temple of Neptune, 44. 
" of Serapis, 176, 177. 



Tombs of kings, 197. 
Tooth of mastodon, 54, 55. 
Tracks of Connecticut Valley, 57-62. 
Tufa, from Temple of Neptune, 44. 
Tufa, volcanic, Pompeii, 180-184. 

Victoria Bridge, Montreal, 221, 222. 
Vision, 327. 

" of the blind, 14-16. 

" of blind Jewess, 16. 

11 with closed eyes, 327, 328. 
Volcanoes on the moon, 79, 80. 

Wafer, impressions on plate made by, 27. 

Walking-cane, whalebone, 62. 

Washoe silver mine, 246. 

Wheel, photograph of, 30. 

Wilkinson on Egypt, 200. 

Willard, Dr. visions of, 14. 

Wood, silicified, 250, 251. 

Wood, fossil, Texas, 10S-110. 

Women more sensitive than men, 286, 

287. 
Wyandotte River, 104. 

Zschokke, on rinding metals, etc., 228. 
" on fortune-telling, 290-293. 



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